Because of you
by xAimiMizukix
Summary: After facing judgment by the angels of the HG, Joshua is casted down to the RG as a human with limited powers. Weak and useless, he seeks out Neku and his friends only to find that Neku is still struggling to forgive. JoshuaxNeku
1. Judgment

Omg I finally went against all that I stood for and wrote a JoshuaxNeku fanfic :o lol well recently I read a fanfic aobut those two and it inspired me to write one and tadaaa here it is :)

"You do realize that the actions you took this past month were not only inhumane but against what we aim for," the high angel said carefully eyeing the young boy before him.

"I do," he replied.

"Because of your actions, Shibuya was nearly destroyed."

"I know."

"Then why do it?" the high angel questioned, "Why put everything at risk just for your little game?"

"It was necessary at the time."

"You nearly destroyed Shibuya you worthless brat!" one angel yelled but only to be shushed by the judges.

"Excuse me but if you can't handle this session then please step out."

The angel sat back down and crossed his arms glaring at Joshua.

"Necessary?"

"Shibuya was already dying," Joshua said, "it pained me to see it like that. Frankly, it didn't deserve 'another chance'."

The same angel stood up, "And who allowed you to decide on that? You can't just go and destroy a world because it was dying. You should have saved it!"

"Sayatoshi, please!" one of the judges yelled.

In an exasperated breathe the angel ran out of the courtroom. Some thought that he was a fool while to others, he was brave. Not many can sit there and look at the face of the one who nearly destroyed the world they knew and loved.

"Because of you, others were sacrificed. May I mention Megumi?"

Joshua winced at the name. "He was trying to change the Shibuya I knew and loved! He—"

"Was trying to save it," the high angel countered, "although his methods weren't the best, you were the one who was keen on destroying Shibuya."

"I—"

The high angel waved him off and the judges came up. "Joshua, your actions are worthy of erasure, but we still need you to help restore Shibuya no matter how ironic that may sound. Your punishment is that you will be sent to the RG as a regular human. Now we won't take away all of your powers but they will be limited. If you overuse your powers then you'll Disappear. Do you understand?"

Many angels gasped at the word Disappear for it was worse than Erasure. If you Disappeared, your very existence would be no more. Every memory, every thought of you would be as if you never existed. No one would remember you. No one would have anything to remember you by.

Yet Joshua shrugged, "I don't have anyone important to me. No one would care."

"What surprises me the most is that you had everything in place. You had everything ready. Megumi lost. Your proxy failed your game. You could have destroyed Shibuya right then and there…so why didn't you? Was it because of that Neku boy?"

At Neku's name, Joshua winced again but still held onto his nonchalant attitude. "Neku? After I finished with Megumi, he was no longer important."

"Then why did you let him stand in the way between you and your goal?"

"He didn't," Hanekoma said trying to step in.

"Sanae, please I can handle this myself. And did I say that?"

"Then what stood between you then?"

Before Joshua could answer, he was engulfed in light.

"Before you return to the UG, give that question some thought."

Suddenly, Joshua felt a burn, he felt pain. He heard the screams of Shibuya; the shouts and cries of the players; the cries of the Noise. He felt the pain of Shibuya pleading for him to save it. All the pain Shibuya was experiencing was thrown onto him. In a sudden cry of pain, Joshua closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep away the hurt and screams of something he didn't know how to save.


	2. Happy Birthday

_Hurt _

_Pain_

_Forgiveness_

_What do those things mean anymore?_

_I've never opened up to anybody since becoming a Composer_

_Didn't need to_

_Didn't want to_

_I wanted to make everyone hate me…I already hated myself…_

_I never wanted this… I shouldn't have pull everyone in_

_But I guess I deserve it after all I've done_

_Heh…do you still hate me as much as I hate myself?_

…_Neku?_

xx

_It's so dark…_

"Ken, you can't just take in everyone you find lying on the streets."

"No I'm serious, Sai, he didn't just end up on the streets. He fell out of the sky. Fell out!"

_I'm in the RG…_

"I think you might be working too hard man. Take a break."

"I…I think you're right…. But still he looks pretty bad."

"Yea you're right. Pretty beat up. I wonder what happened to him."

_I can't move…_

"Besides falling out of the sky?"

"Ken, seriously…Take.."

"Yea…okay…I'll ….just….sit…down for a little."

"Hey, Mr. Doi!" a girl yelled followed by a boy's laughter.

"Hey, kids and please regular customers can call me Ken."

"Sure thing, Mr. Doi!" the boy laughed.

_That voice…_

"Sigh, Neku," Ken laughed, "having the usual? Where's Beat and Rhyme?"

_Neku…_

"They're coming though they're probably lost."

"What says who?" Beat yelled running in to give a laughing Neku a nuggie.

_You've changed not that I should be surprised_

"Hey, Mr. Doi," Rhyme said walking in just as Beat was letting go of Neku.

"Hello, Rhyme." He faced the group and smiled, "Celebrating anything today?"

"Yep," Shiki smirked eyeing a now blushing Neku, "It's Neku's birthday!"

Neku hid his face under his hood and almost automatically cut Shiki off before she could bellow out the Happy Birthday song all over again.

Ken laughed, "Well then today's ramen is on me."

Beat's head immediately shot up and while everybody else was thinking of a good excuse to refuse the offer, he was already ordering as much as he could.

In the end, everyone agreed to accept the offer and were ordering their food.

"Hey, did you see that new mall?"

"Oh my gosh yes! I heard it had new brands from America."

"Really like what?"

"I have no idea, they were all in English."

"Oh. Hey did you hear that the prince—"

Neku turned his attention away from Rhyme's and Shiki's conversation and noticed someone walk out of the door behind the counter.

_Notice me_

"J-Joshua!"

"Oh you know him?"

_Finally_

Joshua stepped over the counter and waved at Neku. "Hey there."

"Oh you're awake?"

The first reasonable thing for someone to do when they see someone they absolutely hate is to ignore them. Neku Sakuraba ran up to him and punched him in the face.

Joshua stumbled back. "Ow, Neku, that really hurts you know."

"Why are you here?" Neku hissed fully knowing that his friends were all staring at the scene at was unfolding.

"Hee hee, it's a secret," Joshua said holding a finger to his lips.

"Why you!" Neku fold himself being held back by Beat and Shiki, begging him to stop.

"Neku, please stop!"

"Yo, Phones! Stop it all right?"

"Aw Nekky- kun's getting all worked up over me. How cute."

That earned him another punch on the face and Rhyme decided that they should leave.

xx

"You were casted down? No way!" Shiki exclaimed.

"I don't understand why not," Neku scoffed.

"But still man…that's just not right. I mean you should have been given another chance yo."

"They probably think that this is a second chance…seeing that I didn't get to fully live my first one," Joshua said whispering the last part to himself, "but thank you for your concern, Daisukenojo."

"BWAAAAAHH! Hey don't call me by that name yo!"

"I'll keep that in mind….yo."

"It's getting pretty late," Rhyme mused, "Aww we didn't get to go Birthday shopping for Neku."

"Now you like shopping, Neku? My my you have changed."

"Shut up, Joshua before I punch you again."

"I'm so terribly sorry."

"By the way, Joshua, do you have a place to stay?" Rhyme asked.

"I can take care of myself. Thank you, Raimu."

"Her name is Rhyme," Beat hissed.

"Really now? Last time I checked, her name was Raimu which in my opinion is a much better name than the one you bestowed upon her."

"Man I don't get your big words so lemme just make it straight alright? Rhyme chose her own name. She likes it that way and I'm gonna keep it that way."

"I see thank you for correcting me….Daisu—err Beat."

With a triumphant smile, Beat declared that it was late and after a couple more happy birthdays and goodbyes, the Bito siblings left.

Shiki stayed with Joshua and Neku for a moment more making sure that the two won't kill each other. After making sure, she gave Neku a hug which he was more than willing to receive and left for the night.

"You were lying weren't you?"

"Now now, Neku, you have to be more specific."

"That you didn't have a place to stay."

"Oh, Neku. You saw right through me. Hee Hee."

"I knew it." After a long breathe, Neku grabbed Joshua's wrist and started dragging him in one direction.

"Where—"

"To my house."

"Already taking me to your house? How bold, Nekky-kun."

"I'm might hate you but even I'm not that cold-hearted. And don't call me that."

"Whatever you want…Nekky-kun."

"You know what? Bite me."

"Is that a threat or a promise?"

"For crying out loud!"

xx

"Here," Neku said before throwing a towel and some clean clothes at Joshua, "take a shower."

"Alone or with you?" Joshua asked dodging another towel that came his way.

"What do you think?"

"Okay I'll be waiting for you inside then!"

Neku sighed. What in the world made him do this? This was the guy who killed him twice without even hesitating. His murderer was in his bathroom right now… God is he crazy?

Neku walked over and knocked on the door.

"Oh so you do want to have a shower with me! How naughty of you!"

"No, you idiot, I just want to ask you a question."

"Ask away."

"Why did you spare Shibuya?"

There was a long silence. "Because it just wouldn't be as fun without you around, Nekky-kunnn."

If there wasn't a chance that he would run in and see Joshua naked, he would have ran in and slapped him…hard.

"Just hurry up."

xx

"Sleep here," Neku said unrolling a sleeping bag on the floor.

"Yes, mother."

"Be quiet," Neku scowled and jumped onto his bed.

"Neku?"

"What?"

"Good night."

"Nite whatever."

"Neku?"

"What?"

"Do you hate me?"

Neku hesitated before answering. "I can't answer that at the moment."

"I'll take that as a yes then."

"That's not what I meant but whatever makes you happy."

"Oh, Neku?"

"What?"

"Happy Birthday."

"Yea..happy birthday to me.."


	3. Noise

"Nekky, dear," Joshua said as he came out of the shower the next morning, "will you accompany me somewhere today?"

"Why?"

"Because I want to spend some quality time with you."

"No."

"Awwww meaniee."

"Stop acting like a three year old, Joshua."

"Who's acting?"

Neku glared at Joshua but his death glare quickly turned into amusement as he eyed the towel wrapped around Joshua's hair. "You look like a girl."

Now it was Joshua's turn to glare at Neku as he quickly pulled off the towel and threw it at him. "I'd have you know that it takes a lot of effort to my beautiful hair looking this way."

"I'll bet."

Neku sighed and put his phone in his pocket. "So where are you going?"

"Aw, Nekky, you changed your mind!"

"Of course not, I just want to know where you're going."

"Sigh, if you must know…Udagawa."

"Why?"

"There's something I need to check out."

"Ok then."

"Care to come?" Joshua asked although he already knew the answer.

"No, I'm going to Dogenzaka with my friends."

_I knew it… _"Oh, ohkay then, have fun with your _friends_, Nekky, dear."

"What's with the emphasis on friends!"

"Nothing, Nekky," Joshua said and ran out the door before an angry Neku could throw something at him.

He looked back secretly wishing to see Neku running towards him but sadly, he wasn't. Joshua sighed, "I guess I'm doing this alone."

xx

Udagawa seemed to be in a worse condition than the rest of Shibuya. Joshua winced at all the pain that was centered around this area. Endless groups of noise were floating about and when there was this much noise, there was a LOT of negativity. People walked around yelling and arguing. Cat's murals were gratified upon and along with it were its messages.

"How am I going to do this?" Joshua pondered, scratching his head. Deep in thought, he ran into someone or should he say…something.

"Noise?" he said jumping back in surprise. That's not right, the noise weren't suppose to see him nor attack him… unless the HG willed it to be…but they just wanted him to learn his lesson….they didn't want him dead…right?

He looked around but only to find that everyone in Udagawa was turned into Noise. More screams and more people frantically grabbing at the air before vanishing and coming back as a Noise. Joshua's heart wavered and he took out his phone but only to realize one thing…he had no partner.

"Crap."

He turned to run but only to find that the exit was guarded by Grizzlys. He had nowhere to run. He had no partner. Is this how he's going to die? Frantically running around searching for an exit or at least attempting to fight back?

"Hello there, Composer."

Joshua spun around to find himself face to face with a Progfox.

"Did you just—"

"Talk? Well heh heh yes," it laughed, "my my Joshua, not everything has to be within your understanding."

"H-how?"

"Hee Hee it's a secret," the Progfox said, morphing into another Joshua, "Poor you. Being casted down with little to no power and you run into us. Where's you precious little proxy now?"

"Damn damn damn!" If only his powers weren't limited; then he wouldn't need a partner. He quickly texted something in his phone and a beam of light shot down on one of the Grizzlys. They were fazed for a moment but not long enough. Joshua cussed seeing that these Noises were stronger than the ones he was use to. The Progfox just laughed and charged at him.

"I guess I have no choice."

xx

"Hey, Neku, where's Joshua?" Shiki asked, her mouth half-full of ramen.

"He took off to Udagawa by himself today."

"Oh…why?"

"Beats me."

"Maybe to restore things there?"

"I honestly have no clue."

"I heard that Udagawa is getting worse and worse…" Rhyme said.

"I heard that too. There were fights on the streets almost every day. There's a lot of negativity over there."

Neku's head shoot up at the same time Beat's did.

They exchanged glances.

"That can only mean one thing, yo."

"Yea." Neku immediately got up, paid for the ramen and ran out of the shop. "Come on guys! Joshua's in trouble!"

xx

They found him lying in the middle of the street in a puddle of blood. Joshua's arms and legs had slashes all over. His head was bleeding and his phone…well his phone was broken. Other than them, there was no one else around; no people and no Noise.

"Oh my gosh!"

"Rhyme! Cover your eyes!"

"Holy Crap! Joshua!"

Neku knelt down. "Joshua? Are you still there?"

In response, he gave a disgruntled grunt and moaned in pain.

"I'm calling the hospital," Neku said while taking out his phone.

"No," Joshua said, his voice was barely audible.

"What?"

"Don't…call…anyone. I can handle…this…myself." He struggled to speak but in his eyes was determination. He wasn't going to let some Noise get in his way.

"Joshua, you idiot! You're bleeding everywhere and you still don't want me to call the hospital?"

Even in his state, Joshua managed to force a pained smile, "My my, Neku, dear. You're already looking there? How naughty of you."

"You…you think this is a joke?"

"Far from it," Joshua said and struggled to sit up.

"No," Shiki said and gently pushed him back down, "We'll carry you back to Neku's place. You need some rest."

"What about his wounds?" Rhyme asked.

"I'll handle it," Shiki said, "Eri has a friend who's training to become a doctor. Hopefully I learned a thing or two from her."

"Well come on. Three, two, one…lift!" The four of them easily lifted Joshua and carried him back to Neku's house.

xx

"There…one more…anddd done," Shiki exclaimed in triumph as she cleaned and stitched the last wound on Joshua's arm. "Whew that went better than I thought it would be," she said nodding at her handiwork.

"Thank you, Shiki, dear," Joshua said but winced in pain when she gently moved him onto the bed.

"Oh I'm sorry!"

"It's fine."

"Will you be okay?" Rhyme and Beat asked in unison.

"Yes, I will."

After a few more minutes the three of them left leaving only Neku and Joshua in the room.

"You're an idiot you know."

"And why is that, Nekky?"

"You go on by yourself to fight the Noise. What were you thinking?"

"I ran into them."

"You knew that Udagawa had the most Noise! You could have asked…" Neku trailed off realizing how contradicting he sounded.

"I did."

"I…"

"But even then," Joshua suddenly looked up at him with a look of such hopelessness and sadness than it made Neku cringe, "What could you have done?"

He was right. In the RG, Neku was useless; even if he had kept all his pins (which he did), they served no purpose in the RG. Not even Joshua could bend the rules here.

Suddenly an idea rushed into his head. "We…we could form a pact."

If Joshua had thought that it was a good idea, he didn't show it. But as he looked at Neku, he could tell that there were ideas swarming in his head but everytime, that one idea kept coming back…a pact…with Neku again…

He chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, Neku-kun."

"If you want something to laugh about, I'll give you something to laugh about!" With that said, Neku rushed to Joshua's uninjured side and brushed his fingers along it.

Joshua looked at Neku in confusion but, much to Neku's dismay, smiled and said, "Hee Hee, I'm not ticklish but I do applaud you for your efforts."

Neku's face turned bright pink. "That's unfair," he managed to get out before turning his face away.

"Hee Hee your face is priceless. But I did applaud you for your efforts." To show it, Joshua held out his hands and clapped twice.

"Shut up. Just form a pact with me will you?"

"Whatever you wish."

And again there was the light show and the feeling of power that surged through their bodies as they became in sync with each other. Neku had his eyes closed and even Joshua gasped a bit for they both felt the same thing. They felt the return of the power they haven't felt in such a long time; the power Joshua yearned for.

Neku smirked and lightly nudged Joshua on the arm. "You there?"

Joshua looked up and smirked back. "What do you think?"

"Okay I'll wait a little while then…"

_I'm not letting you out of my sight anymore. I'm promise…on this pact._

_xx_

_See that Review button right there? *points at it* I dare you to click it :]_


	4. I hate you

Joshua woke up to find himself on Neku's bed. He looked down and found his partner sleeping on the floor with only one blanket over him. His partner…. Everything from yesterday was all suddenly coming back to him… Udagawa, the Noise, and…the pact. He glanced down at his partner again.

_You do not realize what you just did…Neku_

After seeing that his body has healed enough for him to move, he silently got off the bed and headed for the door.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Joshua froze and turned around to see Neku standing right behind him.

"My my, Nekky, aren't you quick."

"Where are you going," Neku repeated.

"Out for a walk."

"Joshua…"

"Yes? Neku, dear?"

"Who goes out for a walk at 4 in the morning?"

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"You can't just go out for a walk this early…there's other things besides Noise out there you know. They're called burglars."

"Aw you're worried about me? How sweet of you Nekky-kun"

Neku's face turned bright pink but he shook it off and grabbed two jackets.

"Here," he said tossing one to Joshua, "I'm coming with you."

"For some quality time?"

"No, you idiot. I'm your partner, so we have to stay together."

"Whatever you say, Nekky,dear."

xx

Even though it was still only 4 A.M, a couple people were already out, driving to work or taking a morning walk.

"I'm thinking of going back to Udagawa today," Joshua said out of nowhere.

"What?" Neku eyed Joshua's bandages and shook his head, "No."

"Aw why not?"

"Look at you!" Neku said motioning at Joshua's bandaged body, "You're just going to get more wrecked."

"You sound like you're really worried about me."

Neku glanced at him but didn't answer.

"What were you trying to do yesterday?"

"Wasn't it obvious? Restore Shibuya."

"And you wanted to start from the worse area," Neku mused.

"Always as quick as ever aren't you Nekky."

"But how were you going to do that?" Neku said ignoring Joshua's overuse of that annoying nickname.

"Cat's murals are there."

"Yea…and?"

"Just think, Neku. Those murals hold messages in them. They are part of the life in Shibuya."

"I…still don't understand."

Joshua pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He had a concentrated look on his face; obviously thinking about how to explain it so that his proxy could understand.

"Sanae puts commands or rather imprints in his art. I'm sure that you can name some seeing that you're his biggest fan."

Neku's eyes widened. "You mean like 'Enjoy the moment'?"

"Exactly," Joshua said smiling in triumph, "his murals are covered in graffiti."

"Meaning that his messages aren't calling out as loud anymore."

"Exactly, see that wasn't so hard now was it?"

"So…you're planning to… clean the graffiti off?"

"That's all I've got so far."

Suddenly an idea hit Neku. He quickly grabbed Joshua's wrist and started running back.

"Neku!" Joshua winced in pain for although he could walk, he was far from being able to run again.

Neku stopped short and looked at Joshua apologetically. "Sorry, I forgot."

"You seemed to be in a hurry to get home. What happened to our morning walk?"

"Well I had an idea."

"Enlighten me."

"We could paint our own murals or even add onto Mr. H's murals."

"Neku…"

"You can still scan and imprint right?"

"Yes…but Neku…"

"We can start tomorrow or sometime later seeing the state you're in—"

"Neku!"

"Oh…sorry what?"

Joshua flashed him a look of irritation. "What kind of artistic skill do you have?"

"Oh."

"Exactly, we can't match up to Sanae's skill no matter how hard we try. We should just stick to cleaning off the graffiti."

"Fine, but not today."

"But—"

"I said no."

Joshua glared at Neku, folded his arms, and tried to make the whiniest face he could. "When did you become my mother?"

Neku gave him a quizzical look before opening the door to his house. "If you think that I'm acting motherly then you must never have had a real mother."

He walked in the house and walked back out to find that Joshua was still standing there looking at the ground. He wavered a bit; his eyes seemed blank.

"Woah hey!" Neku caught him with one arm and tried to steady him with the other. "Joshua?"

Joshua let out a small laugh and looked up at him. "Gotcha."

Neku spent the next 10 seconds deciding on whether to slap him or let him drop to the ground. "Don't joke around like that!"

"Hee Hee aww poor Nekky-kun. You look like someone's being mean to you…"

Neku made a face and let go of Joshua. "Just go inside."

xx

"Here," Neku said tossing a scarf and jacket at Joshua.

Joshua looked at the jacket, tossed it aside, and rummaged through Neku's closet. "Juniper Monkey, Juniper Monkey, Juniper Monkey…" he gave Neku a skeptical look, "Are you serious? Is there like no other different brands in here?"

"Deal with it, Josh; I'm not a fashion person."

Joshua sighed and looked through the closet for another 5 minutes before pulling out a dark blue hoodie with the words "Love is my oxygen" on it. He smirked before pulling it on.

"Did you buy this for Shiki?"

"Excuse me?"

"Did you—"

"No don't say it again!" Neku glared at Joshua, "By the way, since you hate my taste in clothing so much then I have good news for you. Were going shopping."

"What?"

"Yep…with girls and Beat."

Joshua let out a sigh. "Is this how you plan to torture me?"

"Hey, if I remember correctly, you were the one complaining about my clothes," Neku grabbed Joshua's wrist and pulled him to the door, "Deal with it."

xx

They were attacked a few blocks away from the mall. A progfox appeared; the same one.

"Oh my, is that a pact I see?" it said, "heh but that won't be enough."

Joshua wheeled around to face it. "What do you want? Who are you?"

"Can't you see? I'm a Noise."

"You attack us even if we have a pact and you talk…you're not a normal Noise."

"Either way I am a Noise."

"Who created you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The progfox obviously tired of talking, posed ready for battle.

Joshua also stood ready. "Ready, Neku?"

"Yea."

Joshua felt the sudden surge of power as they fought. He levitated in the air and shot beams from his phone while Neku tried to remember how to use some of his pins. They erased most of the Noise easily but that's when the progfox attacked.

"Neku!" Joshua cried out.

"Let's use the fusion!"

_Another world awaits_

_And you're going_

The last thing they heard were the progfox's cries as it faded away.

"Huff huff," Neku gasped, "What was that talking Noise?"

"I don't know but we better stand our guard."

_This was just like that time with the Taboo Noise…_

They passed by more Noise but none dared to attack them. Yet, the more Noise they passed, the quieter Neku got.

"Damn," Joshua thought, "the Noise are getting to him."

"Neku…"

"What do you want now?"

_Crap…too late…_

Neku wheeled around to face Joshua. "What else can you take from me?"

"Neku…"

"You betrayed me twice! You killed me! You!" Neku pointed at Joshua, "You took my life from me!"

"Neku, stop—"

"You don't deserve to live, you traitor! You don't deserve another chance!"

At that, more Noise started to come in and surrounded Joshua; each of them were chanting the same thing.

"You don't deserve another chance."

"You failed as a Conductor."

"Die."

A Grizzly appeared and handed Neku a gun.

"Neku…"

"You deserve to die!"

"NEKU!"

"J-Joshua?"

He watched as reason returned in Neku's eyes but not before he pulled the trigger.

He heard a scream and realized that it was his. The bullet at went right through the arm that was healing hours before.

In shock, Neku dropped the gun and ran to Joshua. "Joshua!"

The Noise disappeared and Joshua swore that he saw a smirk on each of their faces. They had done their job.

Neku dropped to the ground; his entire body was shaking. "I did this…"

"Neku," Joshua winced in pain, "I-it's fine."

"I did this…"

"I said it's—"

But the boy didn't listen. Instead, he covered his head with his hands and screamed.

cc

_Well I'm gonna go on a cruise next week so I might not upload the next chapter until I get back :P _

_Oh and by the way… I like reviews oh you do too? What a coincidence!_


	5. Healing

_I will give each reviewer a cookie :D Come to the dark side before I run out of cookies._

_Oh and btw in the last chapter when I referred to Josh as Conductor, I meant to say Composer. Thank you CookieCrusader for pointing that one out :)_

_xx._

_You betrayed me twice! You killed me!_

_You took my life from me!_

_You don't deserve another chance._

_What do you want now? What else can you take from me?_

_You fail as a Composer!_

"Joshua?"

Joshua woke up with a start and winced as a familiar pain shot up through his arm. He glanced up at his partner. "Hey, Neku."

"Don't get up," Neku said, his voice was full of concern.

Yet, Joshua struggled to get up but only to be gently pushed back down.

"Don't get up," Neku repeated. Then, a little more gently, he said, "How's your arm?"

_The arm that I shot…_

"It's fine," Joshua lied.

"J-Joshua I'm sorr—"

"It's fine."

"No its not! I shot you!"

"You were possessed."

"But still! This was my fault!" Neku said pointing at Joshua's now bandaged arm.

"It was the Noises' fault."

"Josh—"

They were cut off by the sound of someone knocking on the door.

"Yo, Phones! Open the door yo!" shouted a familiar voice.

Joshua smirked and Neku did a facepalm before opening the door to an angry Beat and Shiki.

"You ditched us yesterday! What were you thinking leaving me with a bunch of girls yo?"

"If you were busy you could have told us, Ne—"

Shiki stopped short as she glanced over at Joshua. "Oh my gosh! What happened, Joshua?"

The two ran over to the injured boy and immediately began asking him questions.

"Did the Noise attack you again?"

"Is your arm okay?"

"Happened to you, yo?"

"Do you want me to stitch it for you?"

Joshua shifted a little uncomfortably and Neku wasn't too relaxed with this either.

"The Noise attacked us again," Neku said after a long moment of silence. Should he tell them? Should he reveal that the injury on Joshua's arm was entirely his fault?

"I…" he began.

"I wasn't paying attention stupid me," Joshua said cutting Neku off, "I was focusing too much on one Boomer and didn't realize that there was another one above me. It crashed right into my arm."

Neku stared at Joshua in shock. Why did he lie?

Yet, unsurprisingly, Shiki and Beat believed him and after a while, they left still muttering about poor Joshua.

Neku closed the door and glanced at Joshua before looking away. "Why did you lie?"

Joshua looked at him innocently. "Lie? About what?"

Neku's glared hardened. "You know exactly what I mean."

Joshua smiled sadly and looked away. "Hey I need to go to WildKat soon."

"Don't change the subject!"

"But I really need to talk to Sanae. It's urgent. Won't you let me, Neku?"

Neku's glaze softened a bit but he still didn't let up. "No, I'm not letting you go anywhere. Now why did you lie?"

Joshua pouted a bit and ignored the question. "Aww meanyy."

"Yea, I'm a meany because I want to protect you."

"I can protect myself," Joshua retorted.

"Protect yourself?" Neku said angrily, "look at you! You look all bruised up! You just let the Noise eat you up and spit you out! Go! Fight off the Noise without me and then tell me that you can protect yourself!"

Joshua raised an eyebrow and Neku immediately stopped talking. Of course… this was all his fault…if it wasn't for him, then Joshua's arm would be fine. Heck, Joshua would be fine. If only he came to Udagawa sooner…if only he had gone with him! His body was healing only because of Shiki. He couldn't do anything for him. Even when he tried, he ended up hurting him more… he was useless…useless…

"Fine!' he yelled angrily, "Leave! Go out and get beat up by the Noise! See if I care!"

He stormed out the room leaving Joshua sitting there in a daze.

Come back, he wanted to say but he couldn't will himself to say it.

_Neku blames himself for this._

_Wouldn't it be better if I just left…?_

Joshua got up and grabbed the nearest cell phone he could find. He flipped it open to find a picture of the gang staring at him.

Being the "bad person" he is, he opened the inbox and scrolled through Neku's texts.

Neku, meet us at Dogenzaka at 3 2m kay? ~ Rhyme

Yo Phones! What answers did you get for the homework yesterday? I tried doing it but Rhyme kept telling me that circling the X doesn't mean that I found it.

Hey, Neku. Do you want to come with us to this new amusement park that just opened? It might be fun :). Oh and did I mention? I got contacts! Or would you rather prefer me wearing glasses?

Yo, man. I really don't get this stuff. How do you expand equations? Do I just write them bigger?

_He has his own friends._

_He doesn't need me to slow him down._

He put Neku's phone down and picked up an older looking one with Cat wallpaper. Joshua smirked and put the phone in his pocket. He walked out the room to find Neku standing in the hall waiting for him; his face was filled with remorse.

"So you were really going to leave?" he asked sadly.

Joshua took out the phone he took earlier. "I figured."

"No."

"No what?"

"No, you're not leaving."

Joshua huffed, "Neku, stop changing your mind." As he was talking, he edged to the door and opened it. "Of course, your earlier performance was quite convincing."

Suddenly, Neku's arm shot out and pulled Joshua back.

"I was angry at that time. I didn't mean what I said. I want you to stay, Joshua. I want…to protect you. I…"

"Love you?" Joshua finished chuckling, "Aw how sweet, Neku."

Neku immediately jumped back and punched Joshua's face. "I was about to say that I can let you die here, you idiot! You're still the Composer right?"

"Of course," Joshua said rubbing his cheek, "the games must be madness right now."

"Why don't they get a new Composer?"

"In order to be the Composer, you must kill the current one. Rules are rules."

"So the new Noise…"

"Their creator must want to be the new Composer."

"Oh…" Neku trailed off. Someone was out there waiting to kill Joshua… These weren't just random Noise attacks, these were targeted. Neku looked up at his partner.

_I need to protect him._

Joshua caught him staring. "So… you were going to say you love me?"

And all thoughts of protecting him vanished. Instead, Neku punched Shibuya's Composer right in the face.

_Mehhh pretty short I know but it was intended seeing that the bond between these two… lovers :D needed to be healed (hence the chapter title)_


	6. Admit it

"You want me to go to Shiki's party?" Joshua asked incredulously.

"Well it's not like there's anything for you to do here when I'm gone."

"Oh so you're my entertainer now."

"Hey," Neku said pointing a finger at Joshua, "if I'm not around you might try to go out again. Do you really have such a death wish?"

"Now now, Nekky dear," Joshua said holding out Neku's old phone, "I have a new weapon now."

Neku scoffed, "go ahead use it. That old thing won't do you any good."

"Oh we'll see about that."

Neku pulled out a white button down shirt and black pants and tossed it to Joshua. "Here, wear this."

Joshua looked at the clothes and scoffed. "Is this going to be like a black tie party?"

As if to answer that, Neku tossed Joshua a black tie.

"Sorry I asked," Joshua said, amused, "What's the event?"

"Well, you know Shiki. She—"

"Actually I don't," Joshua said but after given a glare from Neku he motioned for him to go on.

"She likes to make a big deal out of things," Neku continued, "It's Eri's birthday and well they're best friends."

"You're inviting me to go to a party and celebrate the birthday of someone I don't know."

"You make it sound like a bad thing. And besides we're probably going to play games the entire time. You'll be friends in no time."

"Well…technically it is. I feel like I'm barging in."

Neku laughed, "Shibuya's Composer feels bad about barging into a birthday party but he doesn't feel bad about killing people."

Joshua became silent and Neku realized that he had said the wrong thing.

"Josh, I—"

"Heh…do I really seem that way, Neku? So you think that I didn't have a price to pay to become the Composer?"

Neku had never thought about it before. He could almost imagine Joshua as a normal player running around with his partner, trying hard to complete the missions and get a second chance. In order to become the Composer, you must have had to pay a price…

"What was your price?"

Joshua stayed silent for a little while longer before answering. "My entrance fee." He chuckled and shook his head. "Let me correct that… my entrance fees. I had to play the game four times."

"Four times?" Personally , Neku had thought that the amount of times he had to play the game was a new record but four times…. Joshua had to give up a lot. He debated on whether to ask Joshua what they were but decided against it.

But Joshua was willing. "Now that I think about it, they aren't as important to me now as they were before. I was a fool back then thinking I couldn't live without those things…" He lowered his gaze a bit and mumbled something to himself raising his gaze back up to Neku. "Be happy about what you have."

Neku nodded and left the room to do his hair. While he was fixing himself, Joshua sat on the bed; his head was down but he wasn't staring at anything in particular. He was much too focused on his own thoughts. Memories swarmed through his head but only one thing seemed to turn up every time.

"Yomi," he whispered as a tear slid down his cheek.

xx.

"Do you think this shirt makes me look fat?" Neku asked fully knowing how girly he sounded.

Joshua burst out laughing. "Neku, fat makes someone look fat not their shirt. I don't get why you're thinking that you're fat of all people. You're like a stick!"

Neku self consciously looked down at his stomach. "You really think so?"

"Uh duh. Really, Nekky-dear, I don't get what you have to worry about. But if it's to impress Shiki then—"

"Don't even go there," Neku said cutting Joshua off.

"Aww but you two go soo well with we other."

"What would you know about relationships?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised Hee Hee," Joshua giggled.

"Whatever," Neku said giving Joshua a death glare.

"Hey just because I'm Composer doesn't mean I can't have fun." (don't think wrong guys)

"You seem to be in a better mood."

"And why wouldn't I be Nekky-kun?"

"Oh be quiet and get dressed," Neku said giving Joshua's shoulder a squeeze.

Joshua flinched.

"Huh…" Neku mused and when realization hit him, he grinned, "I thought you said you weren't ticklish."

"I-I'm not," Joshua stuttered for Neku had already started dancing his fingers along Joshua's shoulder blade. "He-hey! Cu-cut that out!" He tried to push away but Neku held onto his wrists and squeezed Joshua's shoulder again. Joshua immediately turned to the side poorly concealing a giggle that managed to escape.

"I thought you said that you weren't ticklish," Neku repeated, he smirked obviously amused.

"I'm not!" Joshua yelled trying to squirm out of Neku's grasp and hold back the laughter already bubbling in his throat.

"I'm not letting you go until you say it." To prove it, he began dancing his fingers up and down Joshua's shoulder blades sending him into a fit of hysterics. He was writhing in laughter.

He watched as his partner toss and turned shaking in laughter while trying to form the words on his mouth. Neku realized that he liked his laughter; it was gentle yet it had a ring to it. He couldn't quite figure out what it was. Neku gently tickled his shoulders until he finally admitted that he was insanely ticklish.

"Good boy," Neku laughed and let him go.

Joshua got up and stormed out of the room muttering leaving an amused Neku sitting in the living room amazed at his discovery.

The great Composer of Shibuya had but one weakness.

He was ticklish.

xx.

"Neku! Joshua! You two made it!" Shiki exclaimed.

"Glad we could come," Neku said eyeing Shiki's spaghetti strap cami, emerald skirt and the star pin in her hair, "You look beautiful."

Shiki's face immediately reddened. "T-thanks," she stammered, "You look nice too."

"Shiki!" someone from inside yelled, "are they here yet?"

"Yes, they are, Eri! Come out!"

Out came Eri dressed in a hot pink top and ocean blue skirt. Her hair was tied into a side ponytail and she was sporting new satin flats. "Hey, Neku! And you must be Joshua. Nice to meet you!" she exclaimed shaking Joshua's hand. "Come in!"

Neku's eyes had widened and even Joshua seemed to be in a daze.

"Okay now," Shiki said uncomfortably, "Let's go shall we?" She grabbed Neku's hand and dragged him in followed by Eri and Joshua.

"You seem to like Eri," Shiki whispered to Neku, "but well she's the only one who could pull off that look."

"You're an idiot, Shiki," Neku said back, "Eri's not the one I associate with that body."

That made Shiki's face redden even more and there was an awkward silence between the two. At least that was how it was from Joshua's point of view.

"So, Joshua… Shiki told me about the games and that you were casted down."

"Yes, you're right. I disobeyed a few rules and here I am." He smiled to himself. How childish he must have sounded to her.

"Oh," Eri said obviously trying to find something to say that would have been of any comfort.

In the end, she couldn't find any. "Well… I hope you have fun today, the gang's over there," she said pointing at Beat and Rhyme, "See ya!" And she ran off obviously happy to be rid of the awkward silence that came between them.

Personally, Joshua was happy too. He was never good with people though everything just came naturally when he was with Neku but maybe that was just him.

He slowly made his way over to the group and found Neku sitting on a chair nodding his head to the music that was playing.

"I never took you as a BoA fan."

Neku jumped, a bit startled. "Geez, don't sneak up on me like that."

"You're a lot more jumpy than usual, Nekky- kun. What's wrong? Is it Shiki?"

Before Neku could reply, Eri shouted something on the mic.

"Is everyone ready to party?"

There were cheers most of them coming from Shiki and Beat.

Neku and Joshua looked around.

Nao, Ai, Mina and Sota… most of these people were from the Games.

"Now!" Eri pointed at a pile of letters, "guess what we'll play first."

Everyone looked around in confusion. Letters? What did that have to do with anything?

Shiki smirked and Eri smiled in triumph before going back to the mic. "Were gonna play truth or dare! We're going to use the suggestions that my friends sent in."

"Now this will be entertaining," Joshua said.

"Now…" Eri smiled at the faces of surprise and confusion as she held out a bottle, "who wants to spin the bottle?"

_cc._

_Ah truth or dare good times good times :D Well if you have any truths or dares you want to suggest, you're more than welcome to write it in the reviews. I don't usually prefer it but since this is a yaoi story…. Yes the dares can be yaoi or yuri but nothing too… well you know what I mean. Now…the victims…err…I mean players :D_

_**Neku, Joshua, Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, Eri, Nao, Sota, Ai, and/or Mina**_


	7. Party Games

_Huff I guess I havta make the truths and dares up :/ sorry if they're not that good_

xx.

There were a few mutters and protests as everyone got in a circle with the bottle in the middle.

"I thought you told me that this was a black tie party," Joshua hissed to Neku.

"I never said that."

"But you tossed—"

"Just because I toss you a black tie doesn't mean that it's a black tie party and besides," Neku smirked, "I did tell you that Eri and Shiki like to play games."

Joshua huffed, "Fine but they better not come up with stupid dares."

Shiki and Eri were cuddled in front of the letters and laughed while they were reading some. Finally, they picked up a few and walked over to the circle. "Now who wants to spin it?" Eri asked.

Everybody had the same reply. "The Birthday girl!"

Eri flushed but happily skipped over to the bottle and with a quick flick of her wrist, the bottle spun.

As it spun, everybody was closing their eyes silently hoping the bottle would not land on them. Who knows what kind of dares and questions those two maniacs had come up with.

At last the bottle stopped spinning and pointed right at…. Rhyme.

Everyone else let out a sigh of relief as Rhyme straightened up a bit.

"Yo, if you do anything bad to my sister, I swear I—"

"Beat, Rhyme will be fine," Eri assured and turned to Rhyme, "So Truth or Dare?"

Almost immediately, Rhyme answered truth.

"Okay," Eri said, "What do you love most about Beat?"

Instantly, Beat stiffened and he started fidgeting around uncomfortably. Rhyme giggled, plopped her head onto his shoulder, and hugged his arm automatically sending him into a frenzy.

"Bwuaahhhh! Rhyme!" he yelled, his face was crimson red.

Everybody either made "Aws" or laughed their heads off. Neku was shaking with laughter when approached by an angry Beat.

"Hey hey!" Neku said, "Aren't you happy Rhyme loves you?"

With a huff, Beat sat back down next to his sister, his face still a shade of dark red.

There were a few more giggles before Eri handed the bottle to Rhyme. "Okay, Rhyme, your turn."

Rhyme spun the bottle and again there was silence and nervous glances before the bottle finally stopped again at…. Ai.

Ai's face immediately turned crimson and she hugged her knees closer. "I..uh…dare," she stammered.

Suddenly everyone gasped. "Are you sure, Ai?" Mina asked, "You never do dare."

Ai's face turned into a darker shade of red. "Of course I'm sure. I need to try new things you know?"

Eri smirked and whispered something in Rhyme's ear causing her to burst in giggles.

"Okay, Aaaiiiii," Rhyme giggled, "I dare you to confess to Makoto."

"What?" Ai gasped, "No wait! I choose truth!"

"This is why Ai never does dare, "Mina muttered.

"Too late, Ai. Call him now!"

Everybody yelled a chorus of "do it!" before Ai finally and reluctantly flipped out her phone and dialed. "I hate you, Eri," she hissed as she waited for Makoto to answer.

"I love you too, Ai. Oh don't forget to put it on speaker."

Everybody yelled "YEAH" as Ai turned on the speaker while giving everyone the death glare. "You guys are dead," she mouthed.

"Hello?"

"Uh H-hi! Makoto! How are you? "

"Ai? Is something wrong? Is there really a need to call so late?"

"I uh—no I'm fine. I just uh wanted to tell uh you something."

"Something so important that it can't wait until tomorrow?"

"Y-yes… uhm," Ai took a huge deep breath and shouted, "MAKOTO I LIKE YOU! A LOT!" At the realization of what she just said she covered her face and ended the call before he could reply.

There were giggles and "Are you okay?" before Eri handed the bottle to Ai. "You did well," she praised."

"Shut up," Ai retorted and spun the bottle. This time, the bottle stopped at Shiki.

"Why is it all the girls?" Shiki asked, " ermm truth."

"Okay, Shiki," Ai said a little grin on her face, "How do you feel about Neku?"

Both Shiki's and Neku's cheeks flushed. "I-I uh he's a great friend and I'm glad that I met him."

"Howww glad?"

"Very glad?"

"Aw come on, Shiki. There has to be something more."

"No, nothing."

After a few more minutes, Shiki still didn't say anything new so Ai passed her the bottle with a quick I-know-you're-lying look before returning to her seat.

The bottle landed on Sota. "Finally! A boy!" Shiki exclaimed.

"Dare," he said almost immediately.

"Kiss Nao."

"That it?" he said as he leaned in for the kiss.

"….passionately," Shiki said. Sota knew exactly what she meant. He hesitated a bit but resumed the kiss. He wrapped his arms around Nao pulling her entire body towards him and leaned forward. There were a few moans that escaped from both of their lips. His hand was only inches away from her skirt.

"Woah," Rhyme said before Beat covered her eyes. "You're too young for this yo," he exclaimed to a now complaining Rhyme.

"Oh my," Joshua exclaimed and turned to Eri, "Did you plan for this?"

Eri looked back a bit amused and shook her head. "They seem to be enjoying this."

Finally, they finished and returned to a now silent and awkward audience.

"That was like totally like the best kiss ever!" Nao said breaking the silence and grabbed the bottle, "May I spin it, Sota?"

"Of course, Nao," Sota smiled obviously not realizing that they're the only ones who were talking in the circle.

And so the bottle spun….again…. and landed back on Nao.

"Eh?" she said surprised, "Uh dare."

Eri coughed, finally recovering, "Well I want to have time to play one more game so this will be the last person." She took out a letter from her pocket. "Nao, well… this is an extremely weird dare to ask but my friend asked it soo I dare you to give Joshua a 3 minute shoulder massage."

Neku struggled to keep himself from laughing and Joshua stiffened. It was like his worst nightmares coming true. He could imagine himself writhing in laughter as Nao continued totally going over the 3 minute mark.

"Actually," Neku said out of nowhere, "Am I allowed to take that dare?"

Suddenly all eyes were on Neku. "Uhm…sure…Nao?"

"I don't like mind at all. I'm sure JoshJosh would like Nekky's massages more than mine."

Neku smiled and edged closer to Joshua.

"Neku," he hissed," what are you doing?"

"Don't worry," Neku teased, "I'll be gentle."

"Okay…3 minutes….go!"

Neku lightly squeezed Joshua's shoulders causing him to stiffen. Joshua coughed and kept his hand near his mouth incase a giggle escaped. He spent the next three minutes shifting uncomfortably. Neku was surprisingly gentle with him; he expected Neku to start tickling him just to humiliate him. It would seem like a… Neku-thing to do. He couldn't have been more wrong. How he managed to suffer through that torture without laughing was beyond him but at last, Eri stopped the watch and called the time.

Neku patted Joshua on the back and Joshua took in a much needed breathe of air.

"You looked like you were in pain, JoshJosh."

Joshua forced a smile. "Neku's a horrible massager."

"Excuse me?" Neku laughed and gave Joshua a knowing look.

"Consider yourself excused."

"I thought I was being gentle," he teased.

"Shut up, Nekky dear."

xx.

"Okay! The next game!" Eri said holding out a piece of taffy, "we each get a piece of taffy and only two have a mistletoe shaped figure inside."

Shiki held out a small stick that was fashioned into what indeed looked like a mistletoe…. A deformed mistletoe. Neku smirked. He could just imagine Eri and Shiki cuddled together trying to fashion the stick into something of their liking and coming up short every time.

"The two people who get this mistletoe have to kiss."

"But…what if we're both the same gender?" Mina asked.

Eri smiled and everyone knew the answer.

"I never took Eri as a closest Yaoi and Yuri fan," Joshua commented.

"Eh I saw it coming," Neku said.

"Hey! I heard that!" Eri complained and handed out the taffy.

Everyone took a bit and there were sighs of relief when they didn't see anything.

"Everyone's probably just scared of kissing their own gender," Joshua said and bit into his taffy, "Otherwise, this wouldn't be a problem." His eyes were wide with surprised as he pulled out a mistletoe with his teeth.

"Oh my gosh! I have the mistletoe!" Shiki yelled. She held it up and saw where the other one was.

Both Joshua and Shiki blushed.

"Woah," Eri exclaimed as if it was her own way of saying _Didn't see that coming_, "…now time to kiss."

Hesitantly, Joshua made his way over to Shiki and their lips met. Her arms wrapped around his waist as his wrapped around hers.

Neku should have been laughing with everyone…. He should have been enjoying this but…he wasn't. He shifted from one foot to another and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't watch them kiss. It gave him a nauseating feeling. Why? Was it because he was jealous of Joshua? Or.. was he… He immediately shook that thought away and forced a smile when Joshua made his way back.

"Aw…. What's with that look on your face?" Joshua teased, "jealous?"

"Of course not."

xx.

"Remind me to stay home next time," Joshua said, "I'm not used to this silly games."

"Oh really? You seemed like you enjoyed it."

"You know the one thing I enjoyed?" Joshua said before smiling, "Seeing your face after I kissed Shiki. Jealous that Shiki kissed me?"

"No! I'm jealous she—" _That you kissed Shiki. _"Ugh nevermind."

"Hmm you're keeping things from me, Nekky. Shall I scan you?"

"Try and I'll give you another massage," Neku threatened.

Joshua giggled, "So that's how you plan to get me to do what you want now. How mean of you, Nekky. But may I ask something? Why didn't you just go ahead and torture me?"

Neku glanced at him. "Did you want me to torture you?"

"No."

"Exactly, Mr. Composer," Neku said and held a finger up to Joshua's lips, "Your little weakness will remain our little secret."

cc.

_Yes done! Hope you enjoyed it. Oh and about Sota's and Nao's kiss…. Please people don't think wrong.. even though it really seems that way. :D Maybe it's a little too early for Neku to realize he loves Joshua but I felt I needed to included that :D_


	8. Friends

As the sun rose, more and more people began going out of the house and heading off to start their day. The birds cheerily chirped and children ran around in the sidewalks, the hot summer air brushing against their cheerful faces. Others lazily pulled their shades up and opened the windows. In the morning, the neighborhood enjoyed a blissful peace and qui—

"Joshua! Put some clothes on!"

"I have a towel."

"Hey the way you're moving around, that thing is going to drop."

"Of course not."

"I swear if it dro—"

"…I uh…"

"Oh for crying out loud! Put some damn clothes on!"

Well… not everything can stay the same way…

xx.

"Okay, Neku dear. I'm done."

Neku emerged from behind the door, his face still bright pink. "I swear, you do that again and I'll kill you."

"Aw don' be like that. You know you liked what you saw."

Neku glared at Joshua and showed his fist. "Shut up, Josh."

"You little liar."

"I said shut up, Josh!"

Joshua held up his hands and gave his most innocent look. "Fine fine. I'll shut up. But may we go to WildKat today?"

"Why?"

"I need to see Sanae."

"I heard that WildKat's never open anymore. No one's in there."

"Oh well I'm sure Sanae would come if I asked Heehee," Joshua giggled.

Neku studied Joshua's expression and shook his head. "You're lying."

"Oh so you can suddenly read my mind."

"No your face is like an open book," Neku said.

Joshua made a face and turned away. "So are we going or not?"

"Fine," Neku said and opened the door, "but be careful."

"Yes sir Hee Hee. Oh wait!"

"What is it now?" Neku said as Joshua ran back in the room. He came back out with both of their wallets. "What?"

"We'll need it; we'll be staying for a while."

xx.

Their trip to WildKat was surprisingly uneventful though at every sound they hear, Neku immediately goes ninja only to find that it was a car, person, or a few birds flying about.

"Yep," he said out loud, "I am definitely losing it."

Joshua giggled and upon entering the WildKat, something must have caught his eye for he wheeled around and glared at something.

"And I thought I was crazy," Neku mused and tapped Joshua's arm, "Uhm you okay?" He tried to spot what Joshua was looking at. But, he couldn't find it.

Immediately, Joshua pushed Neku into the café and after he ran inside as well, he slammed shut the door.

"Hey hey Phones and J! Oh hey please don't slam the doors like that."

Neku looked up surprised. "M-Mr. H?"

"What is it, Phones? You look like you've seen a ghost?"

"Rumors say that you disappeared," Joshua chuckled and brushed off some dirt that was blown onto his shirt."

"What's up, J?"

"Oh nothing just thought I saw some Noise that's all."

Neku could obviously tell that he was lying but he didn't dare say it out loud.

"Ah so… Sanae. Someone has been sending Noise after me…"

"Oh really? Any clue who it could be?"

Their conversation droned on and Neku found himself playing around with his head phones. This conversation wasn't meant for him anyways. He already knew what was going on.

"Hey, Phones! If you're just going to sit there then buy something," Mr. H said pointing at the menu.

Neku shot him a disbelieving look. No wonder Joshua had him bring money. He sighed and took out 520 yen. "I'll just have a coffee."

"Make that a coffee and house blend," Joshua said pulling out another 680 yen.

"You got it, Boss." Mr. H disappeared behind the counter and came back with two cups.

While Joshua was talking to Mr. H, Neku found himself dozing off. He has hardly even touched his coffee but was more interested in swirling it around. He looked at his pins and felt the familiar feel of the player pin Joshua have given him on that fateful day.

_Can I still scan?_

He glanced at Joshua who was deep into the conversation. What could he be thinking? Probably a way to get out of this mess maybe.

Neku focused back onto the player pin. Should he do it? Should he try? In the end, he shrugged and pretended to have fallen asleep. He put his arms and head onto the table.

_Open up your senses…_

He definitely heard voices pop up. Joshua's thoughts became visible to him and he entered.

_It still works! I can't believe it still works!_

_He found himself in Udagawa. Joshua was sitting by the mural with a girl. She didn't seem too special. She had black hair, short and skinny figure, and her hair was tied into a short ponytail._

"_Joshua," she said after a long silence, "Why don't you ever try making friends?"_

"_Because I don't need friends," Joshua replied looking away from the girl._

"_But... aren't we friends?"_

_At that Joshua smiled a genuine smile. "You're special though, Yomi. You're nothing like those ignorant fools."_

_Yomi sighed. "But please just try? I've heard terrible things about you, Joshua but you and I both know that they're not true."_

"_They won't let me in. They've already formed their opinions of me and those opinions will stay the same."_

"_No, they won't… you can change!"_

"_What if I don't want to change!"_

"_Can't you try?"_

"_Look, Yomi," Joshua said coldly, "If you want to be friends with them then its fine. But don't drag me along."_

"_Joshua…" At that Yomi had tried to reach out to him but Joshua quickly pushed away her hands. "I never meant that at all. I just… don't want you to be alone when I…leave."_

"_What!" That had gotten Joshua's attention. "N-no you can't!"_

_Yomi played around with her ponytail obviously trying to hide her tears. "I-it's not going to be for too long I mean a year at most. And b-besides," she tried to smile, "I'm going to Osaka it's not that far away."_

_She was lying, they both knew that she was moving very far away._

"_My mom was offered a job there and she couldn't resist. Don't worry," she said; her lips were quivering, "I'll visit I—"_

_She was cut off by a hug. She stiffened for a moment but softened a bit and gladly accepted the hug. "I'll miss you, Josh."_

"_I'll miss you too, Yomi."_

_At last, they pulled away and Yomi stood up declaring that she had to go. Joshua sadly nodded and picked up a violin. "Don't forget this."_

_Yomi forced a smile. "Of course not. When I come back, we'll play together again." She smiled and pointed at the keyboard that laid there by Joshua. "You'll be a great composer one day." She walked a few steps before turning back around, her eyes full of questioning. "Oh hey, the kids at school tell me that you tell them that you can see the dead… silly me for asking but…it that true?"_

_Joshua hesitated but in the end he lowered his head. "No, that isn't true."_

"_Of course, silly me..." she glanced at him, her eyes still filled with doubt, "See ya."_

"_Yea…see ya."_

_When she left, he dropped to the ground and cried._

With a grunt, Neku pulled himself out of Joshua's thoughts, grabbing the attention of the two.

"Hey, Phones. You okay there?"

"Oh uh.. yea I just fell asleep."

"Oh, Neku," Joshua sighed, "Okay then let's go back. Thank you for your time, Sanae."

"Whenever you want, Boss."

"Oh and, Sanae?"

"Yea?"

Joshua turned and put on the most forceful glare he could muster. "If you see any of the higher ups, tell them I despise them for these limited powers."

Much to Joshua's chagrin, Mr. H laughed, "Maybe, you know how those guys can get."

With a light 'hmph', Joshua left dragging Neku along with him.

"So did you and Mr. H work it out?"

"Not really but Sanae suggested that we go to Udagawa tomorrow."

Neku glared at Joshua suspiciously. "Are you sure that _he_ said that?"

"Of course."

Neku shrugged. Suddenly, he wasn't in the mood to argue.

"H-hey, Joshua? May I ask you something?"

"Ask away," he said, still walking quite fast.

"Did you ever have to lose someone you loved when you became Composer?"

Joshua stopped, his back still turned on Neku. "You make it sound like you already know, Neku."

"What?"

Joshua turned finally looking his partner in the eye, he had put on a smile but even an idiot could tell that it was fake. "Naughty, Neku. Did you try to scan me? Maybe I should have been thinking of kissing Shiki."

Neku's face turned red and he started walking again. "No, I didn't trying to scan you, you idiot. I'm not even sure if this stupid pin works anymore," he lied.

Quickly, Joshua grabbed the player pin from Neku's hands. "I'll show you that it still works."

"Jo—"

But Joshua wasn't listening, instead, he was peering into Neku's thoughts. When he was done, he handed the pin back and started walking home.

"Joshua…"

"Do you wonder who she is…Neku?"

"No, I uh…"

But Joshua continued. "She was the first friend I ever had. She meant to me just as much as Shiki means to you." He lowered his head a bit, "she didn't come back that day. She never will."

"Oh…" That girl… she was his entrance fee… but he had more than one then what were the others?

He didn't care instead, he did something he never thought he'd do…ever. They were already at the door but before Joshua could open it, Neku pulled him back… into a hug.

Joshua immediately stiffened. "Neku dear, this is in public."

Neku didn't let go yet, his face a little red. "Hey, comforting hugs help don't they?" He smiled at Joshua and lightly socked him on the shoulder. "And besides… aren't we friends?"

"_But…aren't we friends?"_

Joshua smiled and hugged him back. He decided he like Neku's hug; there was warmth in it and the friendship that he hasn't felt for such a long time. "Yes," he answered, "I guess we are."

cc.

_Kawaii xD Gotta love those two :D Thank you people who have been following/reading this story and thank you my one loyal reviewer xD_


	9. Melody

_So you think you can save her?_

_How useless, even with all that power, all you can think about is her._

_It's too late, Composer, there's no way you can save her. There's nothing you can do for her now._

_You don't have the power to do anything. No even you._

"No! You're wrong!" Joshua yelled and opened his eyes to find himself in Neku's room. He looked over at Neku who was still sound asleep and wrapped his arms around his knees. Now that he was fully awake, Joshua leaned over to the clock. It read 5:14 A.M. Bored, he jumped off the bed and went downstairs to make breakfast. Neku was never too good of a cook, maybe he'll surprise him. He spent the next 30 minutes or so cooking up a good breakfast for Neku to wake up to; he had even set the table when there was a sound in the living room.

He ran to the living room and stopped cold. There, sitting on the couch was a girl who looked like she was in her teens. "Who are you?" Joshua said, his words were forced and he found it hard to stop shaking.

The girl got up, flung her hair to one side and smiled. "Aww Joshua- kun doesn't remember me?" Before Joshua could respond she flung herself at him. "Don't you remember me? How could you forget me so fast?"

"Yomi?" Joshua said in shock.

_No… it can't be…_

"You do remember me! I'm so happy! And oh you made breakfast! How nice!" She grabbed Joshua's wrist and pulled him close to her. "We can be together again. We can be like how we were before. We can leave now! You're partner is still asleep after all."

_Partner?_

Immediately, Joshua pulled away. "Who are you?"

The girl had turned around to face him but her face had changed. "I knew you weren't going to be easy to fool. How stupid of me." At that she changed into a blond woman.

"Konishi?" Joshua said.

"Nope but close," she said, "My name is Haruki. You see Konishi is my dear sister." She picked up the plate of eggs, bacon, and pancakes and began eating.

"What do you want?" Joshua demanded eyeing the food that was already disappearing off the plate.

"Me?" she turned to Joshua and gave him an icy glare, "Isn't it obvious? I want you gone." At that, she ran towards Joshua and slammed his head onto the table. "I heard that your powers are limited," she whispered, "now we don't want to get your precious partner involved as well do we now?"

Joshua averted his gaze but stop struggling. He knew that in a situation like this, it was useless to struggle.

Haruki glanced at the stairs. "My my, what a deep sleeper your partner is. Oh well more fun for me." She threw Joshua against the wall and kicked him hard in the stomach causing him to yell out in pain. "It hurts doesn't it? Well let me share how Konishi felt!" She took out a knife from the table and held it in front of Joshua. "Not that I would kill you now. No, not yet." Instead, she cut Joshua's arm, laughing quietly in the process.

Joshua winced in pain. "Are you the one who's been sending Noise after me?"

"My aren't you a quick one? I am responsible for creating them but my partner came up with the idea of sending them after you. Now you must be wondering who he is aren't you? Well I'm not telling."

"Joshua?" a voice yelled from upstairs.

Haruki backed away and walked to the window. "I guess it's time for me to be taking my leave." Before jumping out, she turned around and smiled, "I'll make sure to say hi to Yomi for you."

"Shut up…"

"After all I can bring her back as a Noise. You seem to have a soft spot for her. Who knew Joshua had friends?"

"Shut up."

"But if I bring her back, would she still feel the same way? After all," she chuckled, "she was your entrance fees and yet, you threw them all away. You threw her away."

"Shut up!"

"Joshua?"

"Heh heh. Good bye, Joshua. It was nice chatting with you. Next time we meet, I won't be as friendly. Oh and thanks for the breakfast." With that, she jumped out leaving an injured Joshua lying on the floor.

"Joshua? Joshua!" Neku yelled and ran towards his partner, "Josh, I'm so sorry."

"I'm sorry, Neku," Joshua said, his eyes were glazed over, "that women ate your breakfast but it's okay. You can eat mine."

"What are you talking about?"

"Heh, I'm always failing you both."

"Both? Josh, what—"

"I guess I should go make breakfast again." He struggled to get up but fell back down.

"What happened to your arm?" Neku asked while gently wrapping Joshua's arm with his scarf.

"Nothing, Nekky dear, nothing." He tried to get up again but was gently pushed back down.

Neku sighed, "Well its fine, I'll cook."

"No offense, but you're not much of a cook," Joshua said and laughed weakly.

"Shush," Neku said and carried Joshua to the couch, "Who was the person who was with you?"

"The person who created the Noise and she has a partner."

Neku stood up and headed back towards the kitchen. He stopped for Joshua had grabbed the hem of his shirt.

"Don't," Joshua whispered, "Leave me." The look in his eyes reminded Neku of a lost, scared child.

Instead of pushing him away, Neku knelt down and held Joshua's head against his chest. The experience with that person must have shaken him a lot. If only he'd been there… if only.

"Neku…" Joshua said interrupting his thoughts and as if he could read his mind, he flicked him on the forehead. "Don't blame yourself."

"It's kind of hard not to," Neku said rubbing his forehead and smiled, "You feeling okay?"

"Yes," Joshua whispered, blushed a bit, and leaned on Neku who was already cradling his head. "I'm fine just like this." His words slurred a bit and before he knew it, he fell back asleep.

Neku sat there with him contemplating on whether to go make breakfast. He decided against it; after all, Joshua was a better cook. And he didn't want to admit it but he liked being this close to Joshua. He really did.

xx.

"Here you go!" Joshua said throwing Neku a bucket of cleaning materials.

"And may I ask where were going?" Neku asked trying to convince himself that the Joshua from a few hours before was just an illusion.

"Didn't I tell you? Udagawa!" he said and came out with a big duffel bag.

"What's in there?"

"Hee Hee you'll find out."

Neku looked down and shook his head. Yep that Joshua was just an illusion.

They walked to Udagawa and again, the walk there was uneventful. Neku and Joshua were still on high alert but nothing happened. Nothing attacked them.

When they arrived, Neku was surprised to see the dire state that Udagawa was in.

"My guess is that this is their 'headquarters'" Joshua mused.

"What?"

"That woman creates Noise and her partner sends them off. These people are probably experiments." He walked towards that mural and put his hand on it ignoring the shouts and screams directed towards him.

"Joshua…" Neku said approaching him, "what exactly do you intend to do?"

As if to answer that, Joshua pulled out a keyboard from his duffel bag. He played a few notes on it and nodded to himself. "I haven't played with this in years."

Neku stood there dumbfound; at least, that was until Joshua started playing. He looked around and found that everyone had stopped and were listening. On their faces were a mix of confusion and surprise. The song Joshua was playing was nothing like Neku had ever heard. The melody was strangely blissful. What made it even more beautiful was the serene look on Joshua's face as he played.

People smiled and swayed a little to the music; their eyes were filled with peacefulness. When the song finished, one by one, everyone started clapping and cheering. Joshua looked up; his face was filled with surprise. He obviously didn't expect it to work this well.

After the people dispersed, Joshua walked over to Neku. "I didn't expect it to work."

Neku shook his head and smiled. "Since when did you play so well? What's the name of the song?"

Joshua looked up at the sky and back at Neku. "It's called Watashi no Koi. I wrote it myself."

Neku glanced at the piano. "That's a fitting name. And I never knew you wrote your own songs."

"Well, I haven't wrote one in a while… this was from a couple years ago at the most."

"Well," Neku said sliding his fingers across the keys, "you're a great composer."

"Thanks." Joshua looked at the bucket, "I guess we should do this later huh?"

Neku looked down, "Well, we could do it now… I mean if you're not tired from playing the piano."

Joshua sighed and stretched. "Well I guess we have to do this tomorrow then." He turned to Neku, grabbed his wrist, and smiled. "Let's head home."

"A- ah before that…Josh… may I try something?"

"Hmm?" Joshua said confused.

Neku slid his hand into Joshua's surprising them both.

"N-neku…" Joshua turned away, "How bold of you hee hee." His voice didn't hold much of the cockiness it used to.

Neku immediately backed away but Joshua didn't let go of his hand.

"You're too bold for words hee hee. But you're right… let's try."

Neku blushed and slipped his fingers into Joshua's. Both of their faces were red but, no one seemed to notice. They walked back to Neku's house and Joshua let go.

"You should see your face, Neku," he teased.

"Speak for yourself," Neku teased back but inside, the feeling of holding Joshua's hand was just another thing he liked about him. He could tell by the look on Joshua's face that he too felt the same.


	10. Watashi no

He had woken up to Neku's unwashed face.

Joshua wasn't much of a dreamer but when he was graced with a dream, he tended to lose sight of reality. Until he was woken up that is. But even then, he was still a bit startled by the light that would suddenly cloud his vision. Normally, he'd expect to wake up to a white ceiling, well this morning, he was given quite a shock.

"Neku!" Joshua yelled, his voice still shaky from surprise.

"Did I finally succeed in scaring you?" Neku replied laughing.

Joshua responded by scowling and jumping off of the bed. He went into the bathroom, grabbed a wet towel and threw it right at Neku's face.

"Wah—Hey!" The towel had hit him hard and he stood there for a moment. "Wow you can throw."

"You're surprised?" Joshua asked incredulously.

"No."

Joshua hmphed and glanced at the water dripping down form Neku's face.

"Where to today?"

"Udagawa."

"Oh Okay then."

"You're suddenly very cooperative… who are you and what have you done to Neku?"

"Shut up," Neku growled, "I just don't want you moping around the house. That's all."

"Moping?" Joshua nearly smacked Neku but missed. "Who's moping?" he asked pouting.

Neku, trying to recover, gave Joshua a look. "You're getting violent."

"All thanks to you, Nekky-kun."

xx.

"Tell me about those art classes, Neku." Joshua said as they scrubbed off most of the swear words on the murals. They had jumped from topic to topic; from television shows, to music, school, friends, and art. Personally, Joshua was never into art, until he saw Mr. H's murals. But even then, he never thought that it was good enough to take up.

"They're great," Neku replied, "when we have extra time, they even teach us spray painting and all that graffiti stuff."

Joshua raised an eyebrow. Teachers teaching how to do graffiti… what kind of school does Neku go to?

"Yea," Neku continued, "I know you're probably thinking that my teachers are crazy but they're actually pretty cool."

"I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying your life now," Joshua said smiling.

Neku glanced at him and smiled. "What about you? When did you start playing piano? Did anyone teach you?"

"I'm self taught. Started learning at 5… I think."

"Wow…" Neku said in awe, "So why is your song named 'Watashi no Koi'? I know I said it was a fitting name but still… why?"

Joshua stiffened a bit and gave Neku a sad smile. "Do you know what Koi means, Neku?"

"Carp," Neku replied almost instantly.

"Yes, but Koi also has a few other meanings. Another one is love," Joshua looked down. "Yomi loved carp for some strange unknown reason. Heck, she loved any fish in particular but carp was her favorite. Back then, she wanted me to write a song for her. Watashi no Koi seemed like an appropriate title. I tried to make it feel like those fishes in a pond; swimming and carefree. I didn't notice later that it could also mean love."

"Did you feel that way?"

"I don't know anymore. All I knew was that all I needed in my life to be happy was her. She was the only one who didn't judge me. She never hesitated to protect me. She never listened to the rumors about me. She never left me for others."

"Oh."

And then there was silence. Neither of them knew what to say next so they decided to enjoy the silence. They didn't realize that they were the only ones in Udagawa…well the only humans that is.

_Crap_

Joshua glanced over at Neku who was crouching down, trying to scrub off a "Fuck you!" from the mural.

"Hey, Neku. Let's talk about something."

"Like?" Neku replied curtly.

"Hrm How about Shiki?"

Neku gave Joshua a hard look followed by a glare. "No." His eyes were starting to glaze over as the amount of Noise grew and grew.

_The Noises are already getting to him… damn they're fast._

Joshua did the only thing, he could think of at that moment. He threw the bucket of water over Neku's head.

"Wah—Josh!"

"Welcome back, Sunshine." Joshua said giggling, "You looked like you were falling asleep there."

"How the hell did I look like I was falling asleep?"

Joshua dodged a punch and let out a sigh of relief as the Noise thinned out. He stood there watching the Noise disappear wondering why they would target Neku's thoughts again. Before he knew it, his entire body was soaked in water.

"Pay back," Neku whispered in his ear, "And unlike me, you really did look out of it."

In response, Joshua shoved the sponge he was holding right into Neku's face and "washed" it. "There," he said laughing; "now I won't have to wake up to your unwashed face ever again."

Neku glared at him and punched him in the face.

"Why is it always the face? You're ruining my good looks."

"What good looks?" Neku laughed and gave Joshua's shoulders a squeeze causing him to jump and nearly fall back.

"You know, Neku. Using my weakness to your advantage is really mean."

"Yea and guess who I learned that from," Neku replied.

"Oh? And who may that be?"

"Hmm here's a hint." Neku grabbed Joshua's arm and pulled him into an embrace.

"Hee Hee You've succeeded in confusing me," Joshua said but willingly hugged him back.

"Good." Neku took a look at the mural. It was not fully clean but it looked way better than it did when Joshua first came here. Joshua could do a lot for this world. Well… world as in Shibuya seeing that he can't leave. Or can he?

Stepping back from the hug, Neku placed the materials back into the bucket. "Let's head back now."

xx.

They had expected a safe journey home… they were wrong.

Before they knew it, they were surrounded by Noise. However, these Noises are different.

"I've never seen these kinds of Noise before…" Joshua mused.

"They must be her doing."

Joshua nodded, looked up, and screamed out, "Haruki!"

"Shut up you Hectoplasmals!"

Neku took a step back and Joshua shook his head. "No way," Neku seemed to say and turned to Joshua. "I thought you killed him!"

Joshua shook his head again. "I only slowed him down. Killing him was never my intentions."

"Well now he's going to kill us!" Neku yelled as Sho and Haruki appeared from behind the building.

"Hello, you stupid zeros. What the factor took you so zetta long?"

"So you were the one who sent the Noise after us," Joshua said.

"No," Haruki corrected, "After you. Your partner was just in the way."

_Just in the way…_

"Neku," Joshua said, "Go back."

"What? Are you—"

"They're only after me. Go back before you get hurt."

"You should listen to him, you hectoplasmal. If you don't then I'll blast you into the square root of infinity! AHAHAHA"

"Neku… just go… I'll be fine."

"No," Neku grabbed Joshua's hand and made Joshua look at him, "Were partners and no offense but… you're nothing without me." At that he smiled and so did Joshua.

"Ugh so zetta disgusting," Sho said, his nose wrinkled in disgust.

"So you've made your choice?" Haruki scoffed and took a fighting stance, "You'll regret it."

"Prepare to be iterated."

They blasted through the first couple sets of Noise pretty easily. True they were harder than the original but they weren't hard enough to cause major damage to the two. In a couple of minutes, they plowed through all the Noise.

"Easy."

"That was a nice distraction."

That is until they got to Sho and Haruki. Both of them have taken on their Noise forms and stood there ready for battle.

"You idiot. I thought I made them harder than that."

"How the factor was I suppose to know, you yoctogram! This is zetta stupid."

"You're stupid!"

"What did you factoring say?"

"For partners you two don't look to chummy," Joshua commented.

That brought them back to reality and before anyone could respond, they attacked.

Despite their earlier arguments, they worked extremely well in battle. Soon, Neku and Joshua found themselves breathing hard and trying to keep up.

"Aw are you tired?"

"So zetta slow!"

Joshua kept trying to do Jesus Beams but kept missing every time. "Neku," he breathed, "do something."

"Fusion!" Neku yelled and took out the pin that now showed a meteor from all that fighting.

_A whole new world awaits_

_And you're going._

There was a loud explosion and Neku had to shield his eyes from the light. Joshua smiled in triumph but only to find that the two Noise were still alive.

"How?" Neku yelled.

"Hrn Hrn," Haruki giggled, "Did you really think that you could defeat us so easily?" She teleported to Neku's side and whispered in his ear. "If my sister hides in the dark, where do you think I hide?"

Suddenly Haruki and Sho disappeared and laughter rang in Joshua's ears. "We'll spare you today but one word of advice, Joshua… get rid of your partner he doesn't deserve this kind of abuse. You can still imprint so erase his memories. It's possible. Don't you want him to live a normal life?"

With that, they went away leaving Joshua and Neku lying there in a daze.

"Josh, I'm sorry," Neku said.

"No, I should be sorry."

xx.

"Neku," Joshua said, "I was thinking—"

"How about this, Joshua," Neku said interrupting him, "you behave and we'll go to the beach tomorrow."

"Beach?" Joshua could faintly remember the last time he's ever been to the beach. Going to the beach won't be too bad however…

"There is no beach in Shibuya," Joshua said flatly.

"Yea but you're not in charge of the games right now."

"Doesn't mean that I'm able to leave."

"But that doesn't mean we can't try."

Joshua took one look at Neku and knew that this was a useless argument. "You better impress me."

"Yes!" Neku smiled and cheered like a little kid. The earlier battle must haven't had as big an effect as it had on Joshua. Yet, even then, Neku didn't seem to have any more worries in this world.

Joshua chuckled, "You've turned into such a happy-go-lucky person."

"Excuse me? Did you say something?" Neku said and did a full launch attack on Joshua's shoulders. "What did you say? I can't seem to hear you, Josh. Louder please?"

Joshua managed to squirm away laughing and yet, his heart was breaking. He knew he shouldn't listen to her but letting one person die was already too much. He's not going to lose Neku also.

He gave Neku a long look and pulled him into an embrace; his hands wiped the tears starting to form on his eyes.

"Joshua?" Neku exclaimed, "Are you okay?"

"Yea," Joshua coughed and slowly, accepted what he had to do.

_I have to erase his memories…_


	11. Stepping over the line

Joshua couldn't sleep that night. Instead, he sat there in Neku's bed and listened to the soft snores coming from his partner. He couldn't close his eyes and drift away that night. He just couldn't. Every time he closed his eyes, Neku's laughing face appeared. He knew that sooner or later, he won't be able to see Neku's smile again. Glancing over at him, Haruki's words repeated in his mind.

_Get rid of your partner he doesn't deserve this kind of abuse._

_You can still imprint so erase his memories. It's possible._

_Don't you want him to live a normal life?_

"Yes, I do," Joshua whispered quietly and walked over to Neku who was still sleeping soundly. Joshua's hand hovered only inches above Neku's forehead. His heart was beating fast but his head was focused.

"You don't know me," he started to say but stopped short.

_You behave and we'll go to the beach tomorrow._

Joshua let his hand fall back to his side and got up. He was so close! What had stopped him? Did he enjoy living with Neku like this? Did he enjoy their laughs and fights?

Joshua shook his head. He couldn't believe it; he was willing to risk Neku's life for his own selfish purposes. He sat back down onto the bed and made a phone call to Mr. H. He might as well; sleep wasn't going to come to him anytime soon.

xx.

"Josh! Hurry up!" Neku yelled as he slung a small bag over his shoulder, "We're going to miss the train!"

Joshua slowly walked out of the bathroom in a t-shirt and shorts. "Neku, I don't really feel too comfortable about this."

"Oh stop whining," Neku said and grabbed Joshua's hand, "Shibuya's not going to die if you're not here for at least a day."

"I just never… left Shibuya since becoming Composer." Joshua stiffened as Neku dragged him along the sidewalk. "Maybe we can hang out somewhere else perhaps? You haven't seen your friends in a while right?"

"Oh no need to worry, their coming with us!" Neku said laughing. "But well they're only going to hang out in the beach for a little because Beat and Rhyme need to meet some relatives. Shiki… I think she's going to be dragged along."

_Oh great more people to see me drown._

Joshua knew that it was useless to argue but as Neku pulled him onto the train, he had the sudden urge to run out before the doors closed. Instead, he dragged himself to the seat next to Neku and took out the phone Neku had bought for him.

Neku glanced over. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

Right before the doors closed, Beat, Rhyme, and Shiki ran in.

"Hey guys," Shiki said in between breathes.

"Yo, man," Beat greeted before sitting down beside Neku.

"Sorry, guys," Rhyme said before sitting next to Beat, "Shiki had to go back to get Mr. Mew."

Joshua smirked and Neku laughed out loud. "Really, Shiki?" Neku said, still laughing, "You went through all that trouble to get that piggy?"

Shiki glared at Neku and hit him with her cat. "It's a cat!"

The group shared their stories about how their summer went. Neku shared most of it but left out the fact that two crazy killers are after him and Joshua.

"Oh my gosh! Joshua, you play the piano? You have to play for us one day!"

Joshua gave Shiki an uncomfortable smile. "Maybe."

As soon as the train passed the borders of Shibuya, Neku felt Joshua immediately stiffen. Of course, this was his first time that he's been out of Shibuya's borders. He could just imagine the discomfort that Joshua felt when they pasted another city.

Neku whispered to Joshua, "So another Composer is in that city?"

"Yea," Joshua replied. His words were forced; obviously, he wasn't too happy about the chance that the Composer of another city might walk into the train.

What they got were two reapers. They folded their wings in and stepped onto the train. When one of them saw Joshua, he made the closest expression to a "o.O" Neku has ever seen. Neku gave him a friendly smile and that sent the reaper running off the train, leaving the other behind.

"Neku," Joshua whispered, "I think you just traumatized him for life."

"Me?" Neku whispered back, "You're the Composer. I was just giving him a friendly smile that's all."

The other reaper gave Joshua a confused look and sat down across from them. She didn't look like she was past her teens; she was probably 16 or 17 before she died.

"What are you doing here?" she asked when the train was somewhat empty.

"Were going to the beach," Neku answered.

"The beach…"she mused, then shook her head. "We don't have a beach here. I've never been to one."

"We're going to switch trains soon," Shiki said joining in, "you should go get your friend and go too."

The reaper gave Shiki a quizzical look and shook her head. "We're in the middle of a Game. The Composer sent me to go get something for him. That reaper was my partner," she sighed, "well, he was until he ran off and left me by myself."

Rhyme and Shiki gave her a sympathetic smile and as the train stopped, the group stood up to leave.

The reaper was staring at Joshua as the Bito siblings stepped off the train. "You're vibe isn't as strong as a Composer's should be," she mused.

Joshua stepped off the train and turned around to face her. "Let's just say that I'm taking a vacation," he said.

The reaper gave Joshua another weird look before the doors closed.

xx.

"The beach!" Rhyme yelled out happily as she ran towards the sand; Beat and Shiki were following right behind her.

"You guys go ahead," Neku yelled to them, "We'll catch up later!" He turned towards a hill right next to the beach and grabbed Joshua's hand. "Let's go."

Joshua let Neku drag him to the top of the hill where he stood there, speechless. "Wow," he said. It was a beautiful view. The water was glistening in the sun and people ran around on the sand. Their faces filled with pure joy as they chased each other around.

"Did I impress you yet?" Neku teased.

Joshua turned to Neku and giggled. "Nope. Of course not."

"Thought so," Neku said and pulled out some sunscreen. He poured out a bit and began putting it on his arms and legs. When he was done, he handed it to Joshua. "Wanna help me put some on my back?"

Joshua nodded and did the same as Neku. When he was done, Neku slapped some onto his back and shoulders. His fingers dragged the sunscreen along Joshua's spine.

Joshua then did the same and as he slid his fingers along Neku's back, Neku shivered.

"You okay?"

"Yea, your fingers are cold though."

"Sorry," Joshua apologized and continued sliding the sunscreen onto his back. Neku flinched and shivered again. "You know," Joshua said, "I'm starting to think that your shivering isn't because of my 'cold' fingers." A smile found its way onto his lips.

"W-what do you mean?" Neku's voice shook a bit.

Instead of answering, Joshua slid another finger down Neku's back, making him flinch again. "Hee Hee did I find Neku's weak spot?" He danced his fingers down Neku's back causing Neku to jump back; his lips were stretched into a tortured grin. "They always say that revenge is sweet," Joshua teased.

"Josh! Stop!" Neku yelled and fell back… onto Joshua and knocking him over. "Ah…Sorry, I-" Neku flipped over to find himself on top of Joshua. Both of them were blushing furiously when they realized the position they were in and how close their lips were.

"S-sorry. I'll get off," Neku said but for some reason, he didn't. He was staring Joshua directly in the eye. Joshua's eyes… They were more like the eyes of an angel. A beautiful angel… a fallen angel…. His head's screaming at him to get off but instead, Neku leaned down and their lips met.

Joshua stiffened but only for a little. Soon, he willingly kissed back and for a moment it was only them. Neku was the only person who ever mattered this much to him. That was until Neku pulled away and got up, his face still red.

"Sorry, I don't know what came over me."

"N-no, it's okay," Joshua stuttered and also got up. Why was he stuttering? Did that kiss mean so much to him? It was just an accident, he told himself. Just an accident.

xx.

"Neku! What took you guys so long?" Shiki yelled over from the water, "Get in!"

Neku jumped in and swam over to them. "Where's the piggy?"

"It's a cat! And Mr. Mew is over there," Shiki said pointing at a pink towel with a stuffed animal plopped on top of it. "And where were you guys?"

"I was just showing Joshua the view. Right, Josh?" Neku turned to find Joshua still on the beach; he stood at the edge of the water but didn't look like he was going in anytime soon. "Josh?"

"Ah," Joshua said, "I'll just stay here."

"Don't tell me," Neku said and smiled before swimming back to Joshua, "you can't swim."

"What? I never said that!"

"You didn't have to," Neku teased, "Ah, the great Composer can't swim. How cute."

"Shut up."

"Here," Neku reached out, "Take my hand."

"Why do I have a feeling that you'll try to drown me?"

"Oh so you don't trust me?"

Joshua rolled his eyes and reluctantly took Neku's hand. They waded over to the group.

"Yo, you okay?" Beat asked, eyeing Joshua who was suddenly clinging onto Neku's arm.

"Y-yea."

"Josh, if you hold onto me like that, we'll both drown. Here," Neku moved away and held onto Joshua's hand, "Stretch out your legs and move them in a circular motion. No, not like that. Yea… slowly… you got it. Now move your arms the same way. No, it's okay I won't let go. Okay good."

In less than two minutes, Joshua was treading water… somewhat.

"You're a fast learner," Neku praised nodding.

"Joshua, nobody ever taught you how to swim?" Rhyme asked.

"Never had the time to learn," Joshua answered.

With Neku's help, soon, the group including Joshua was able to swim farther in near the waves.

"What I'd do to get that third fusion again," Beat said eyeing the waves.

"Yea…" Neku agreed.

Joshua cocked his head to one side and glanced at Shiki and Rhyme who were also eyeing the surfers.

"Hey, guys," he said and suddenly all eyes were on him. "I remember seeing this place that rented surfboards."

"Yea, but they're expensive, yo."

"I'll take care of that," Joshua said and managed to swim back leaving the group wondering how Joshua would be able to afford it.

When he made sure that no one was looking, Joshua took out his phone, texted something, and five surfboards appeared.

He dragged them out into the water and watched as the group, wide- eyed, swam over to help.

"H-how did you…" Neku said amazed.

"How much money are you carrying around, yo?"

"Enough," Joshua replied.

Neku eyed him suspiciously but shrugged and ran towards the waves. "Come on, Beat! Let's do it!"

"Let's start it up!" Beat yelled and jumped into the wave.

"No, let's end it!" Neku yelled back laughing.

Shiki and Rhyme laughed and also jumped in with their surfboards. "Come on, Joshua!" Shiki yelled, "We'll teach you how to surf!"

Joshua grinned and ran towards them with his surfboard. Man this was going to be fun.

xx.

The Bito siblings and Shiki had left to visit their relatives leaving the two on the beach. Joshua had texted something into his phone and the surfboards disappeared.

Neku eyed him. "What did you rent them from www dot text-to-rent-a-surfboard dot com?"

Joshua gave Neku a quizzical look before answering, "Maybe."

Neku smiled and tried to wipe out the sand from his hair. "I guess there would be no point in getting my hair back up."

"I thought you needed gel to do that…"

"I know," Neku said and pulled out a bottle of gel from his bag.

Joshua gave Neku another look before looking back at the still glistening water. The beach had become almost empty as the sun got lower. "It's going to get dark soon," Joshua commented, "let's go."

"No, wait," Neku said, "There's still one more thing I want to show you."

They waited and slowly, the sky was filled with colors as the sun set. Even the waters reflected the sun's gleam and a shade of orange danced along the edge of the ocean.

"I figured, you haven't seen a sunset for a while."

Joshua gazed at the setting sun and shook his head. "Wow," he said amazed.

"So have I finally succeeded in impressing you?"

Joshua smirked. "I guess I'll give you some credit," he teased.

"I can live with that."

xx.

They were back in the train and Neku had fallen asleep. Joshua too was getting tired but he saved

the rest of his energy to make one phone call.

"Hey, Sanae?"

"Hey, J. How are ya?"

"I'm fine. I went to the beach with Neku and them."

"Beach? There is no beach in Shibuya… oh I see. You crossed the borders."

"Yea, I just wanted to say that I made my decision."

"You mean about Phones?"

"Yea… just for once… I felt… like I was really a normal human."

"Are you really willing to throw that all away? You might not realize it but Neku needs you just

as much as you need him."

"He doesn't."

"Yes, he does, J. If you erase his memories of you… well resurfacing them might as well be a bloodbath. You're not only erasing his memories of you, you're erasing his feelings for you."

Joshua softened when he remembered the kissed they shared on the hill. Just an accident. Just an accident. "You're wrong. I'm only doing this to protect him."

"You're not protecting him, you're hurting him! Yea you might be able to keep him away from you if you do that but you won't be able to keep him away from them! They'll use him, J. They know how important he is to you."

The train swerved and Neku's head found its way to Joshua's shoulder. Joshua glanced down at Neku and softened. "I need to do this, Sanae."

"What would it accomplish?"

"Do you have an extra room in WildKat?"

"You're not listening to me, Joshua!"

"I'll be coming over tonight."

"Yoshiya Kiryu!"

Joshua paused and stopped talking for a moment.

"Listen to me, J. If you think that erasing Neku's memories right after you two spent so much time together won't hurt him then you're wrong. He cares about you! Why do you think that he's tried to save you all this time?"

"Because he's my partner."

"What happened to you? You used to try to do everything you can before you give up someone you care about! You used to fight for them! You used to resist losing them!"

"I—"

"But now... you keep putting yourself between them and danger. You think you can save them if you sacrifice yourself but you can't. Ever since you lost Yomi you—"

Mr. H stopped cold and Joshua could tell he that had clamped his mouth shut. "J, that came out wrong… I—"

"I'll be coming over tonight," Joshua repeated, hung up, and placed his phone back in his pocket. He glanced at sleeping Neku and looked away.

He couldn't bear to look at him anymore.

xx.

Joshua had waited until it became apparent that Neku had fallen asleep. He got off the bed and placed his hand above Neku's head. He leaned over and jumped when Neku's eyes opened.

"What are you going to do, Joshua?" Neku asked as if he didn't know already.

"I'm doing what's best for you."

Tears started forming on Neku's eyes. "Why…"

"Because I… don't want you to be hurt anymore."

"It'll hurt even more if you leave."

"No it won't," Joshua whispered, "I promise."

Suddenly, Neku sat up and pulled Joshua into an embrace. "Liar," he said before softly kissing him on the lips.

Joshua immediately pushed away and gave Neku the most pained look Neku has ever seen in his life. Joshua shook his head and stared right into Neku's eyes. "You don't know me," he said, his voice was shaking.

"Joshua… what—"

"Our friendship never existed."

"What are you doing?"

"You've never met me before."

"Jo—" Neku's eyes were glazing over and he began to slump back.

"I never existed in your life or anyone else's. If your friends ask, the imprint will spread onto them. No one in your life knows me."

Finally, Neku's eyes were completely glazed over and he slumped back into his makeshift bed on the floor.

Joshua leaned down and gently kissed him on the forehead. He hesitated but then also gently kissed his lips. "Goodbye, Neku."

cc.

_Wow longest chapter I've ever written :P yea I know some of you might probably kill me for this… hehheh… *runs into a corner and hides* _


	12. The only exception

_Okay well people… this is a side chapter :P no I'm not trying to stall (yes I am) But I still hope you enjoy! Oh and by the way, yes the POVs tend to change in this chapter._

_cc._

_I never had friends. No one understood me. No one even wanted to talk to me. Not that I mind; I don't need friends to bring me down all the time. I can keep to myself; I can keep this secret to myself. This secret and this curse…_

_xx._

_It was all over the news that day; a wealthy man had died in a car accident. In the other car was unsurprisingly, a drunk driver. That was the day I met him._

_I was there that day. I stood beside the dead man as other rushed to get help. There was always something fascinating about death. Your soul comes out of your body and into what I know as the Reaper Games. I've seen the Games too many times; I remember seeing the Players frantically running around trying to find whatever item or person they were looking for. They did have it hard but hey sucks for them._

_Even in death, that man looked peaceful. I had the sudden urge to reach out and touch him and so I did._

"_Hey," someone said pulling me back, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."_

_I wheeled around to find a man staring intently at me. He looked very familiar but what surprised me the most was when he said, "I don't think people would want to know that you can see them." He eyed the Players and glanced back down at Joshua. "So, kid… what's your name?"_

_xx._

"_You know, Sanae…" Joshua said looking up at the mural he was painting, "You should make a name for yourself."_

_Mr. H gave Joshua a confused look. "What do you mean, J?"_

"_I mean like an alias. Your paintings are great but well you don't like showing your face in public well unless it's in your shop but still."_

"_Well why don't you come up with one for me then?"_

_Joshua thought for a while and glanced at his surroundings. Suddenly, he jumped up. "Hey, I got one."_

"_Lemme hear it."_

"_Well your café is on Cat street and not to mention that it's name is WildKat… so why not name yourself Cat?"_

_Mr. H thought for a little while then smiled and painted a cat on the mural. "Perfect," he said and gave Joshua a thumbs up. Then, he frowned. "Uhm hey, Josh? Aren't you supposed to be at school?"_

_Joshua grimaced, "God, when did you start sounding like my mother?"_

"_Speaking of your mother, wouldn't she be worried if you're not at school?"_

"_It's not like she cares."_

_Mr. H sighed. "Hey, you know how some of my customers are students at your school right?"_

"_You have customers?"_

"_Shut it, Josh. Well, they kept talking about a new girl coming tomorrow. Why not give her a shot? You might make a new friend."_

_Joshua grimaced again, "Why should I? She'll just be like all the others."_

"_How would you know that?"_

"_Because I can see the futureee," Joshua said shaking his head, "fine… I'll go but I can't promise that she won't be traumatized when I'm done with her."_

_Mr. H sighed again, "Just try not to scare her."_

"_You know, Sanae, no matter how you put it, you just want me to get you a new customer."_

"_What? When did I say that? Why would I say such a thing?"_

"_I don't know. I'm just psychic that's all."_

_xx._

"_Good morning, class. Today, we will be having a new student! Please introduce yourself." The teacher motioned to a short, black haired girl._

_The girl smiled causing most of the boys in the room to nearly faint. "Hello, my name is Yomiku Mizaki. Nice to meet you all."_

"_Well, Yomiku. It seems there's only one available seat… next to… Yoshiya Kiryu." The teacher pointed at Joshua and gave Yomi a sympathetic look._

_Yomi took a seat next to him and smiled at him despite the fact that he was obviously ignoring her. "Hello," she said, her smile unwavering, "I'm Yomiku. But you can call me Yomi. Nice to meet you, Yoshiya."_

_Normally ,he would have continued ignoring her but something in her voice made him turn towards her and force a smile back. "Hello, Yomi. But please call me Joshua."_

"_Joshua?" Yomi cocked her head to one side, "That's not a common name."_

"_Well maybe because I'm weird," he said and turned away._

_Instead of backing away, Yomi laughed and did a small bow. "Please be nice to me," she said politely._

_Joshua smirked. "Only if you do the same to me."_

_xx._

_They spent the next couple days with each other. Despite the constant warnings from her classmates, Yomi never left him. She could have been popular and had a boyfriend but for some reason, she never left him for a normal teenage high school life._

_They even found similar interests like for example, music. She would play her violin and Joshua would play his piano. Their music was the only thing the school liked about them. Other than that, they were outcasts. _

"_Hey, Joshua," Yomi said one day, "why don't we go somewhere afterschool?"_

_Joshua cocked his head to one side; a habit he got ever since hanging out with her. "Do you have a place in mind?"_

"_Well," she looked down sheepishly, "Some girls told me about this café on Cat street. They said that the food there was good."_

_Joshua could have bursted out laughing but he held it back. "Oh? Well, I have a friend who owns the place. Maybe he can sneak us something for free?"_

"_Really?" _

"_Sure why not?"_

"_But…. I have to warn you one thing."_

"_What is it?"_

_Joshua smiled, "his food isn't that good."_

_And so they went and before he knew it, Yomi was punching him on the arm._

"_Joshua, you liar!" Yomi said as she took another bite of her muffins, "this stuff is delicious."_

_Joshua laughed, "Nice to know someone thinks that. Right, Sanae?"_

"_Shut it, Josh before I throw a cup of coffee at ya… and make you pay for it."_

_Yomi laughed with them, took out some yen, and handed them to Mr. H. "I'll come back whenever I can."_

"_You have no idea how happy that makes me. Good bye."_

_Joshua smirked at the image of Mr. H standing in an empty café doing a happy dance because he finally got one regular customer._

_xx._

"_I… don't want you to be alone when I leave."_

"_What?" That had gotten Joshua's attention. "N-no you can't!"_

_Yomi played around with her ponytail obviously trying to hide her tears. "I-it's not going to be for too long I mean a year at most. And b-besides," she tried to smile, "I'm going to Osaka it's not that far away."_

_She was lying, they both knew that she was moving very far away._

"_My mom was offered a job there and she couldn't resist. Don't worry," she said; her lips were quivering, "I'll visit I—"_

_She was cut off by a hug. She stiffened for a moment but softened a bit and gladly accepted the hug. "I'll miss you, Josh."_

"_I'll miss you too, Yomi."_

_At last, they pulled away and Yomi stood up declaring that she had to go. Joshua sadly nodded and picked up a violin. "Don't forget this."_

_Yomi forced a smile. "Of course not. When I come back, we'll play together again." She smiled and pointed at the keyboard that laid there by Joshua. "You'll be a great composer one day. You should compose something for me when I get back!"_

_Joshua smiled. "Of course… something about carp?"_

_Yomi laughed and lightly punched Joshua's arm. "Yea, sure I'd lovee that."_

"_I'm sure you would," Joshua said and gave her a sad smile, "see ya, Yomiku."_

_Yomi smiled back, "Yea see ya…. Yoshiya."_

_xx._

_Yomi was on the train back to Shibuya and the train broke down. It swerved off the tracks and crashed against the rocks. Joshua was devastated. He kept telling himself to wait for her. That Yomi will survive the Games and come back. Every day, he waited by their spot next to the mural. She never came._

_Weeks later, rumor went around that Yomi was alive. Joshua had let out a breath of relief and made plans to meet up with her again but the next day, he got into a car accident. He remembered Yomi's shaky voice telling him not to die._

"_Survive the Games," she pleaded, "Come back. I'll be waiting every day. Please!"_

_Joshua forced a pained smile and said something that surprised even her, "I know about the Games." He then closed his eyes before Yomi said anything else._

_xx._

"_Megumi! Come on!" Joshua yelled as the two partners ran towards the underground station to where the game master was. _

_The game master wasn't hard and before they knew it, they were surrounded by light. _

"_Are we… alive?"Megumi asked._

"_No," someone said and from the shadows, came a woman. She glanced at the rest of the Players who finished and back at Joshua."The Composer has been watching all of you and he decides that none of you won."_

_There was a chorus of "what?" before the woman raised her hand and everyone became silent. "The Composer decides that he wants all of you to play the Game again. Your entrance fees will remain the same. I wish that all of you do well." With that, Joshua woke up in the middle of crowds of people._

_xx._

"_Joshua," a girl said as they ran towards Hachiko, "You okay?"_

"_Yea," he replied, "I'm fine, Kasuki, I'm fine."_

_They had also successfully defeated the Game Master… but only Kasuki was able to have a second chance._

"_What?" they both shouted in unison. _

"_Joshua should be able to have a second chance!" she yelled._

"_No, we should both be able to have it!"_

_Again, the women replied. "The Composer decided that the Player with the most points will be able to live again."_

"_This is unfair!"Kasuki yelled._

"_Like I care," the women countered, "I'm just doing my job. Your partner can still play the game again. Just be happy that you get another chance at life."_

_Kasuki looked down, defeated. She looked back at Joshua. "Josh, I—"_

"_Go," Joshua said and smiled sadly, "your life was more worthwhile than mines was. You deserve a second chance."_

_Kasuki nodded and was engulfed in light. "I hope we'll see each other again!"_

_Joshua nodded and waved. "Hopefully we will."_

_xx._

_He didn't know what he was fighting for anymore. _

"_I want to see Yomi," he kept telling himself but after being forced to play the Game a fourth time, he told himself another thing. "I want to kill the Composer."_

_xx._

"_Okay that's enough!"a girl yelled and stopped running, "Unlike you, I have a life worth living for! Why can't we just go and finish the goddamn mission?"_

_Joshua stopped but didn't turn around. "Fine," he snapped, "but let me tell you why I want to kill the Composer." He wheeled around. "He made me play the game three times already."_

"_Well, if we finish this one then—"_

"_Tell you what. If I become next Composer, you can be my Conductor."_

"_No," the girl said, turned around , and started walking. "Like I said, I have a life to get back to and I'm pretty sure you did too. You're fighting to keep someone alive right? Then hurry up let's go!"_

_Joshua convinced himself to hang on for a few more days. He convinced himself that this will be the end._

_It wasn't._

_xx._

_There was yelling._

_There was a scream. _

_Then there was silence._

_Joshua and Megumi stood there horrified at what they just witnessed._

"_Oh my," the woman said, "it seems I lost my temper for a moment but oh well she wasn't going to win anyways."_

_Joshua was seething in anger but managed to say three words. "What. About. Us?" _

_The woman looked at Joshua pityingly. "It seems like the Composer doesn't want you participating anymore. He ordered me to erase you."_

_Joshua took a step back. "Why?"_

"_His orders," she replied and attacked._

_Joshua fended her off quite easily. Maybe it was because he had four weeks of experience. They were fighting in the air. Joshua had his cell phone and was dropping things at her while she was blasting white beams of light at him._

"_Megumi," he yelled, "Help me!"_

_Megumi nodded and ran in to join the battle._

_In no time, he was standing up in triumph while she slowly faded away. "Heh no wonder he chose you," she whispered._

_Joshua ignored her and checked to see if Megumi was alive. He was knocked out. Joshua dropped a healing pin on him and walked out of the room and right into the Composer. He stopped cold. "Why…" he said and screamed out for the Composer was none other than his own father._

_xx._

"_Hello, Joshua," his father said. His voice was tired and worn out. "I see you erased my Conductor. My, how powerful you are now."_

"_Why…" Joshua glared at his father, his feelings at seeing his father again was only pure hatred. "Why are you so keen on torturing me like this?"_

"_Torturing? No of course not. I just wanted to keep you with me."_

"_Since when did you ever care about me? You just wanted me to get erased!" Joshua lashed out in hate. _

"_Yes, I see. I guess those are my sins. I must say… I repent but I guess that isn't good enough," he looked at Joshua and smiled, "Erase me."_

_Joshua took a step back. "What?"_

"_You heard me," he said and took a step forward; taunting Joshua with his sadistic smile, "Erase me."_

_Joshua took another step back and stared his father in the eye. He took out his cell phone and dialed. Before he knew it, he was up against a wall._

"_So my own son will try to kill me when given the chance. Such love you must have for me, Yoshiya."_

"_Don't call me that," Joshua said clenching his teeth._

"_Yo-shi-ya Ki-r-yu," he taunted._

_Joshua couldn't move his hands and so he kicked. Hard._

_His father winced but didn't double over in pain like Joshua expected him to._

"_What a bad boy you are," his father said, "too bad, I'll have to punish you."_

_With that, he punched Joshua in the stomach making him double over in pain. He then shot beams of dark at him until Joshua was lying on the ground moaning in pain. _

"_This is what happens when you disobey your father, Joshua," he said and pulled out a knife, "I'll erase you right here right now. Won't that be great?" _

_Suddenly, the room was engulfed in light. "What? No, impossible!" his father screamed._

_Three angels came down made their way to them. "Hitachi Kiryu!" One of them said, "Your days as Composer had gone long enough."_

"_What have I done wrong?" he said boldly._

"_You nearly destroyed Shibuya with your reckless Games that you directed towards your son and even after surviving four weeks, you try to kill him. You are quite bold to ask that question."_

_The angel turned to his fellow angels and said two words, "Erase him."_

_Joshua's father went crazy after that. He begged and pleaded, he even ran to Joshua and begged for his forgiveness but nothing worked. In a few seconds, the angels were gone and he was on the ground._

"_Hey, Joshua, I guess you're the new Composer now," he said weakly, "but I have one more surprise for you. You have to give up something to take my place."_

_Joshua didn't answer._

"_Your entrance fees." _

_With the last amount of power he had left, he teleported them to Udagawa where Yomi sat waiting._

"_No!" Joshua yelled and Yomi looked up. _

"_Jo..shu…a…" she said in surprise but backed away in fear as two Reapers approached her. She glanced at Joshua. "Joshua! Help me!" There was a scream and silence. _

_Joshua collapsed onto his knees as his father laughed at his son's misfortune. _

"_Goodbye, new Composer," he said before finally fading away._

"_Megumi…" Joshua said to the boy who just entered the room, "will you be my Conductor?"_

_xx._

_Ever since that day, I have never looked at people the same way ever again. Humans were evil. All they want is to control others for their own pleasure. Second chances…what would that prove? Nothing… nothing at all._

"_Megumi," I said._

"_Is there something bothering you, Sir?"_

"_I'm going to destroy Shibuya."_

_xx._

"Josh? Hey, wake up!"

Joshua slowly opened his eyes and said the first thing in his mind. "Neku?"

"No, J, it's me."

Joshua looked up to find Mr. H staring at him.

"Now if you don't mind, can you please move into that room?" He said pointing at a small room in the corner of the café. "Please? Soon? I'm opening up in 5 minutes."

"Ok, Sanae," Joshua replied and walked into the room.

That's right… he didn't stay at Neku's last night. What happened that night was suddenly coming back to him. The memories, the kiss, and how he managed to walk into WildKat before finally collapsing out of exhaustion.

"Neku…" he said softly. That's right…. Neku's memories of him were erased. He is finally going to be able to live a normal life… without him.


	13. Can't Forget

Joshua was in a daze for the next couple days; he didn't eat and he hardly slept. He kept trying to convince himself and Mr. H that he's just nervous about being found. Both of them knew that he was lying. Erasing Neku's memories had hurt him and his sudden dream of Yomi had shocked him.

Mr. H was deeply worried about him but alas, he didn't do anything about it. During the first few days, Mr. H had constantly checked Joshua's room; asking him if he needed anything much to Joshua's irritation. After a while though, he started to check less and soon, stopped checking.

Joshua knew that he shouldn't have turned Mr. H away like that but he hated being taken care of. It reminded him too much of Neku.

_Why do I feel this way?_

He clutched his head in irritation and suddenly, the room seemed so much less inviting. He couldn't stand hiding in here. It was too much to just sit there all day… thinking about things that he would rather forget. Even though Mr. H had warned him strictly not to leave the room, Joshua couldn't resist the urge to run out the room….into an unsurprisingly empty café.

"Hey, Sanae," Joshua said making Mr. H jump.

"Oh hey, J. Didn't I tell you not to come out?"

"Why not? There's no one here."

Mr. H motioned at a figure slowly approaching the café. "I suggest you go back in… Now."

Joshua was shoved back into the room and had to force himself against the door in order to hear what was going on.

"Hello there, Hanekoma. It's been a while," a woman said.

"Hello to you too, Hinamori."

"As you know, I wanted to talk to you about the Composer."

"What about him?"

"I heard that there has been a disturbance in the RG and I traced it to two people; a woman and a man. Correct?"

"Correct and I'm guessing that you're worried about, J."

"Yes, we were considering bringing him back to avoid further damage to Shibuya."

"Oh?"

"But only if he agrees."

"Well, luckily, I have him here right now. Joshua!"

Joshua slowly opened the door like a scared child and walked out to see a woman staring back at him.

"Ah, Joshua. I've heard so many things…" she said, her face showing her discomfort. If Joshua could scan her right now, she would have probably been wondering how he could have caused this much trouble already.

Joshua did and awkward bow and flushed. "I overheard your conversation."

"Good, I don't need to repeat anything then. So what shall it be? Stay or go?"

Joshua was silent for a while and was only brought back by the angel's sighs of annoyance. She obviously didn't choose to be here.

"I need some time."

The angel looked surprised….very surprised. "Of course. I'll come back whenever I can."

When she left, Mr. H gave him a quizzical look. "It's about Neku isn't it?"

Joshua gave Mr. H a weak smile. "Neku? Of course not. I'm just wondering what those two will do when I'm gone. Their motives puzzle me. Now if you'll excuse me," Joshua headed for the door only to be stopped.

"No, J. It's too dangerous."

"Oh come on, Sanae. You kept my locked up in a room for weeks, I need air."

Mr. H had ever right to argue; every right to pull him back and force him back into the room. Yet, he let go of Joshua's wrist. "Be careful okay?"

"I will."

xx.

Joshua slowly walked along the park lost in his thoughts. As he sat down, he noticed a group little kids playing around. Their laughter drifted around the park.

"You have no idea how lucky you guys are," Joshua whispered, eyeing the kids running around playing tag.

Honestly, Joshua didn't know what to do during this moment of freedom. He felt quite content, though, sitting on the bench. Well… that was until he came.

Joshua almost didn't notice; that flash of orange hair as he walked by with his friends. Joshua almost had to restrain himself to keep from jumping up and apologizing to Neku. However… it wasn't that easy anymore. The Neku he knew was gone; now replaced by another one that he didn't recognize.

Neku and the group had walked past him without even a second glance. Of course… he didn't expect any less. He just hoped that his imprint was strong enough to hold for a little longer if not permanently.

Suddenly, Neku glanced back… right at Joshua. His eyes showed the obvious, struggle. He was struggling to look past the haze; to look into Joshua's eyes and remember what happened this past couple ; it was also obvious that the imprint had worked. In less than a second, Neku's attention was focused back on his friends.

Joshua sighed and got up. Imprint or not, he couldn't risk letting Neku recognize him. He walked out of the park and suddenly, didn't care where he was going. He just kept walking until he came face to face with the mural. Suddenly, a flood of memories crashed into him; memories of Yomi and Neku. All the memories came at him as if they were stored in the mural the entire time. Holding hands… the hugs… the laughs… and the kiss.

Joshua clutched his head and leaned against the mural for support.

_..I can bring her back as a Noise._

"No, it's impossible," Joshua whispered to himself, "she can't come back."

_But if I bring her back, would she still feel the same way?_

"Impossible… impossible," Joshua repeated to himself. Suddenly, the once calming murals were threatening him; taunting him to come closer. Joshua did the next most reasonable thing in his mind, he ran. He didn't even know where he was running to; he didn't care. Next thing he knew, he was back at WildKat.

Joshua stood at the door, panting. He was afraid to go in; afraid to piece of reality screaming at him. Yet, he walked in and came face to face….with Neku.

xx.

Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme paid no attention to the new customer but Neku did. He just couldn't ignore this nagging feeling that he knew him from somewhere.

"Oh yea… I saw him in the park," Neku thought to himself and tried to turn his attention away. Yet, the nagging feeling was still there. Neku couldn't help but get off his seat and walk over to the white-haired boy.

"Hello."

The boy stiffened for a moment but replied, "Hey."

"Uhm," Neku scratched his head, "Have we met before?"

The boy cocked his head to one side and shook his head. "Not that I remember."

"Okay sorry. I just thought you looked familiar that's all," Neku said before returning to his seat. Yet, the nagging feeling still didn't go away.

"Why do I feel this way?" Neku said to himself and sipped his coffee.

xx.

On their way out, Neku's hand accidentally brushed by Joshua's causing both of them to stiffen.

"I… uh sorry."

"No, it's okay."

Neku walked out in a daze. He can't even begin to explain the sudden urge he felt to grab that stranger's hand.

On his way home, he bumped into a woman who immediately blocked his way.

"Uhm excuse me," Neku said trying to get pass her but again, she blocked his way, "Will you please…move?"

The woman smiled sweetly but still didn't get out of the way. "Neku was it?"

"How do you know my name?"

"I need you to come with me for a little," she said grabbing Neku's wrist, "Don't worry, I won't hurt you."

xx.

Joshua ran back into the room as fast as he could.

_The imprint isn't strong enough…_

Of course… he shouldn't have expected it to work as intended.

_What if he remembers me?_

It was highly plausible now…

_Crap._

He knew that Neku had left already but just to make sure, Joshua waited in the room for what seemed to be another hour before coming back out to a once again, empty café.

"Is he gone?"

"No," Mr. H said, "Neku and his friends just magically turned invisible."

Joshua gave him a long glare and looked around. "Did he say anything about me?"

"Nope. The imprint must be working."

"Yea… I guess so."

"Something up, J?"

"No, nothing. I'm fine."

xx.

Joshua was woken up by Mr. H frantically knocking on the door. "J? Josh!"

Joshua groaned and turned over. This was not a good time to be waking him up. "What is it?" he replied with a hint of annoyance.

"It's about Neku."

Immediately, Joshua was out of the bed and at the door. "What happened?"

"He disappeared yesterday. I'm guessing that it's Haruki."

Joshua cussed and asked, "Did she leave anything?"

"Uhh yea… Neku's phone."

Joshua flipped the phone open and opened the messages.

"_Usual place… You should know where it is, Yoshiya-kun."_

"Usual place…" Joshua mused and then it hit him. This text wasn't from Haruki.

In less than a few seconds, Joshua was out the door and running to Udagawa. He didn't just have to face Haruki and Sho and get Neku back. He had to face Yomi too.

cc.

_GAHHH writer's blockkk . blehhh I'm sooo sorry for taking so long to write this (screw you school) and I'm sorry if this bores to you to tears but I promise that next chapter will be awesome (hopefully)_


	14. Goodbye

"_Usual place… You should know where it is, Yoshiya-kun."_

Joshua didn't know what to think; he didn't know how to think. Yomi… Haruki wasn't lying about bringing her back. Or was she? Joshua clutched his head as the hand holding Neku's cell phone started shaking.

It was a trap. He knew that it was a trap. Yet, he still kept running. He couldn't stop; he didn't want to stop. Yomi could be alive… she might have came back hating him. At that point, Joshua didn't care anymore.

As he ran towards Udagawa, he was fighting the conflicting emotions that raged through his body and threatened to take control. His feelings for Neku… and his feelings for Yomi.

At last, the familiar mural came into view. Joshua looked around. Where were they? Where was she?

"Joshua…"

Joshua quickly wheeled around and felt his heart skip a beat. "Y-Yomi…"

Before him stood the black haired girl he thought he knew so well. Her hair that was usually tied into a small ponytail now hung loosely and wildly at her shoulders. The warmness and laughter that once shone radiantly from her eyes was now replaced by coldness.

"Joshua," Yomi repeated. The coldness in her eyes turned into sadness. Even Joshua couldn't tell if it was genuine sadness or if it was faked.

Joshua struggled to find the right words. Something to confirm that this girl was indeed his childhood friend… However, instead he said, "Where's Neku?"

As if he flicked a switch, the coldness edged back into her voice. "Why him?"

"Because he's in trouble."

"No, he's not. He's just fine."

"What did you guys do to him?"

Yomi glared at Joshua in annoyance. "Nothing. We just knocked him out."

"Then where is he?"

"Why do you to need to know, Joshua?" Yomi asked, pleading and hurt started to edge their way into her voice. "Aren't I enough?"

"Yomi, I—"

"She brought me back telling me that you were going to come for me! She told me to get that other boy out of the way for you to come to me!"

"Well, she's wrong," Joshua said slowly.

"No, I don't believe you. You can't love him over me!"

"Yomi—"

Yomi's eyes were deranged; she started to clutch her chest. "I loved you ever since we met." She threw herself onto Joshua and hugged him like the old Yomi would. "Let's run away, Joshua."

Joshua pushed away. "What?"

"Let's run away from all this," Yomi pleaded, "Why can't it just be the two of us again? Like the old times?"

Even then, something inside of him yelled at him to take on Yomi's offer to run away. He really wanted to; he wanted to leave behind his problems and run away with his most cherished friend.

_Most cherished friend…_

"No," Joshua said, "I can't."

This threw Yomi into a rage. "Why not? Why him?"

Joshua lowered his voice as much as he dared to. "Because right now, he's the one person who matters the most to me."

"And besides," Joshua smiled a sad smile, "You're not the Yomi I knew. You're just a projection that Haruki managed to create from my memories."

Yomi gave Joshua a tearful look and lowered her head. "Is that what you've led yourself to believe, Joshua…. That I'm just another projection that Haruki managed to conjure up?" She held Joshua's hand in hers. "I'm real, Joshua. She brought me back to life."

For a moment, Joshua almost thought that this was really the real Yomi. Yet, he shook his head. "Impossible… you were erased. I saw it."

"Haruki told me about your friend's sister. She was erased and yet she was brought back was she not?"

"She was brought back as a Noise. Even then she—"

Yomi had cut him off with a kiss. In a few seconds, Joshua found himself kissing back. The bittersweet and passionate taste of the kiss, it was almost too good to be true.

_What am I doing?_

Joshua pushed away the thought and wrapped his arms around her.

_I need to save Neku._

Again Joshua pushed the thought away as they continued to kiss.

"I love you, Joshua."

"I love you…"

_Neku_

Joshua felt himself push Yomi away and heard her cries of shock. "I'm sorry, Yomi," Joshua whispered, "You're not the Yomi I knew. I'm sure of it now."

Yomi took a step back. "What?"

Almost immediately, Joshua felt a sharp pain shoot across his back. Yomi had gone behind him and stabbed him with a small knife.

"You're wrong, Joshua," Yomi cried out, "You're wrong!"

Joshua nearly doubled over in pain but he took a few steps back. "You're another one of her creations aren't you?"

"You're being stupid!" Yomi said as she tried to slash at Joshua with her knife, "Stupid, stupid!"

Joshua flipped out his phone but only to have it knocked away. Yomi tackled him to the ground; her eyes were brimming with tears.

"I understand, you must think that Haruki created me to trick you right? But even she doesn't know everything from our past, right?"

Joshua averted his eyes and shook his head. "No," he said but even his voice was filled with doubt.

She kept Joshua pinned onto the ground. "Did you write that song for me…_composer_?" There was a bit of an edge to her voice as she said the last word.

_Composer_

That word didn't have as much meaning to Joshua as it did before. From what he knew that was happening in the HG, he might as well be an ex-Composer sooner or later.

"Yes, it's called Watashi no Koi."

Yomi smirked and for a moment, she looked a lot like the Yomi he used to know. "You really wrote it about carp. Seriously, Joshua…" And as if she had read his mind earlier, she said "Something's happening in the HG right? Don't give me that look, Haruki told me. You might lose your position as Composer right?" She then said something that surprised them both, "Why don't you stay here? With me."

_Stay with her…_

_I've searched for her all these years._

_All of my actions were caused by losing her…_

_But I…_

Joshua glanced at her eyes and immediately knew that that was the wrong thing to do. All the warm and love from before had crept back into her eyes and as the tears dropped onto Joshua's shirt, the sudden urge to grab and comfort her was so great that Joshua had to use all his strength to withhold himself from doing exactly that.

"I must sound crazy right, Joshua? Wanting only you and willing to kill anyone in the way… And yet… you…" She couldn't finish but gave Joshua a sad smile. "But I guess our lives were always meant to be a love triangle."

Joshua stiffened at the memories that those two words brought back to him.

_Love Triangle…_

"_You look down lately," Yomi said while fiddling with her hair, "No, more like you're annoyed. What's wrong?"_

"_Nothing," Joshua said; not making any eye contact with her._

_Yomi lightly socked him on the shoulder, "Tell me."_

_Joshua sighed and glanced at her. "Misane-san has been flirting and following me around lately. I'm not sure whether It's real or if it's just a joke but it is so annoying!"_

"_So she likes you?"_

"_I don't know."_

_Yomi looked up and Joshua knew she was thinking. "What would they call that? Love line?"_

_Joshua rolled his eyes. "More like stalker."_

_Yomi giggled and then her voice softened. "Well if you add me then it'll be a love triangle."_

"_Eh?" Joshua's face immediately reddened and he now was directing all his attention on Yomi. "W-what?"_

_Yomi gave him a nervous laugh. "Gotcha! Seriously, Joshua, talk about gullible." She then turned away and lowered her voice. "Of course… I'm so stupid... why would he…"_

_xx._

Joshua softened. "Tell me what you said that day again."

Even through her tears, Joshua could see confusion creep into her eyes. "What day?"

"When we were talking about Misame-san."

Yomi dropped her head and looked back up at Joshua; her face was red but her tears had stopped coming. "You must love, Neku right?"

Joshua lowered his gaze and nodded.

"Doesn't he love you back as well?"

Joshua hesitated his time but after remembering the kiss and everything else they went through, he nodded again.

Yomi gave him a sad look. "Then it won't be much of a love triangle anymore. You and Neku have a mutual love and me… I'm just a girl that happened to walk in at the wrong time. Maybe even back then, we could have been official but you wanted to stay friends and I wanted to hide my love. Remember when you were dying and I had told you to survive the Games? Do you remember what you said to me then? Did you have to live your whole life like that? Watching the Games…."

Joshua stiffened. He knew where this topic was going and he didn't want part in it. "Yomi, I…"

"I don't blame you for getting me erased. You were only trying to get back to your normal life after all. I was just there… to cause you trouble."

"Yomi…"

"But even then… when I was brought back, Haruki told me that you were waiting for me, Joshua. You were waiting with open arms. And then I heard about Neku…"

"Yomi."

"So am I just another girl now? Is that what you think of me now?"

"Yomi!"

Yomi stopped for a moment and looked down at Joshua.

"I never wanted to leave you, Yomi. You think that I was surviving the Games only for my normal life? Of course not, you idiot! I was fighting to get back to you! You were my entrance fee for all four games!"

"But now…"

"Now, I've moved on. I suggest you do too, Yomi."

Yomi looked defeated and got off Joshua. "Neku's at Shibuya River," she whispered and started to walk away.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"My job was to either convince you to go with me or kill you and now that I've completed neither one, my role is over."

"W-what do you mean?"

Yomi gave Joshua a sad smile. "It means that I will finally be out of your life, Yoshiya- kun." With that, she started to fade away.

"No…" Joshua said and grabbed for her hand, "You're…"

"…going back to the nothingness that I've gotten so use to," Yomi completed for him, "You should hurry. They're waiting for you."

Joshua gave her a disbelieving look before shouting, "If we meet again, let's be friends again! I'll show you the song I wrote for you!"

This time, Yomi didn't even smile. "We won't," she said before she fully faded away.

_We won't…_

Joshua knew the meaning to those words. They'll never meet again. Yomi was erased for good this time, there was no bringing her back.

_My job was to either convince you to go with me or kill you…_

She had definitely tried to convince him and she had also tried to kill him; the pain from his back was proof of that. However, in the end, she couldn't complete either one. It wasn't like her to force someone and it obviously wasn't like her to kill.

Joshua then decided that he couldn't waste time. He tried mending to his wounds to the best of his ability and started to run for Shibuya River.

_Neku…_

Suddenly, all the doubts he had were gone, he had someone to live for now. He had this feeling only once during the Games and now he was feeling it again.

"Oh well if it isn't, Yoshiya," someone said, "I see Yomi couldn't pull off the job I gave her… predictable."

"Where's Neku?" Joshua hissed.

"Oh him? Don't worry, he's safe right there." Haruki said and pointed at a boy strapped against the wall.

_Neku…_

Joshua ran over to him and gazed into Neku's unconscious eyes. He didn't know whether the imprint still held but it didn't matter to him anymore.

"Neku…" he whispered.

_I'm here._

_cc._

_Well I promised you an awesome chapter and well…. I lied :/ Now as I re-read this chapter…. It sounds so freaking cliché gahhhh… but oh wells next chapter… I promise promise this time… yea double promise that it will be worth it :P_


	15. Saved

_Neku…_

Joshua's heart was beating fast as he looked up at Neku. This head was spinning and his hand was trembling.

"Are you done?" Haruki asked in annoyance.

Joshua nodded and looked around. "Where's your partner?"

"I sent him to get something but don't worry he'll be back." Haruki gracefully walked around Joshua, eyeing him as he glared back.

"What do you want from me?" Joshua asked after a long silence.

"Shouldn't it be obvious, Mr. Composer," she leaned forward until their faces were only inches apart, "I want you gone." She lifted Joshua's chin and forced him to look at her in the eyes. "Both of us know who's going to be the better Composer right? Let's not start a fight over it because both of us know who's going to win."

Joshua kept himself from averting his eyes and instead glared at her back. "Well, now," he replied, "I wouldn't want to insult your strength."

Haruki smiled in triumph. "Exactly," she said, "It's a two against one, Joshua, your partner's out cold."

"No need to state the obvious."

"You're rather calm for a person who's going to die soon."

"Really? Well I'm sorry to say but that's not the way I see it."

"Oh? So you really think you have a chance," Haruki snickered, "you idiot." She slashed at him causing him to take a step back. "You must love to have the position of a hero right? I'll still fight, I'll do whatever it takes. Pitiful," she mocked and continued slashing at Joshua, "What's wrong why won't you fight back?"

Joshua didn't move and refused to do as much as wince at her attempts to faze him. "I don't need to, you're sad enough as you are."

"What?" she grabbed Joshua's face, her nails digging into his skin.

Joshua shook her hand away. "You're only doing this for your sister aren't you? Because you could only bring back one person, you wasted it on a plan that didn't even work."

Instead of replying, Haruki threw Joshua against a wall head first causing him to cough up blood. "You should just keep your little mouth shut. You made the wrong choice, Joshua. You should have gone with Yomi."

"I have accepted the fact that she's gone," Joshua said slowly, gasping as Haruki punched him in the stomach.

They heard a rustling behind them and Haruki smiled. "It's about time you've woken up."

Joshua's heart skipped a beat and his whole body went numb.

Neku had woken up and was now staring at the scene unfolding before him. Instead of the spirit and strength that once shone radiantly from his eyes, there was fright and confusion. "Who are you guys?" he stuttered.

Haruki snickered, "It wasn't in my calculations for you to wake up before Sho came back. But it doesn't matter anyways."

"Neku…" Joshua gasped.

Neku didn't reply. Instead, he stared with a blank expression.

Joshua shouldn't have been surprised, he shouldn't have cared. Yet, he did.

Suddenly, Joshua was lifted from the ground and pinned against the wall. He looked up to find himself face to face with a Noise.

"So zetta slow."

"About time," Haruki said and also changed into her Noise form, "Watch carefully, Neku."

Sho threw Joshua at Haruki who kicked him against another wall making him cough out more blood.

"What's wrong why won't you fight back?"

"Die, radian."

xx.

Neku's vision was blurry when he woke up. He couldn't move and his head hurt…a lot.

"Neku.."

Neku's head shot up to find himself looking at a woman and a boy covered in blood. He didn't know what was going on or how they knew his name but he didn't want to find out. "Who are you guys?" he asked bravely.

There was something familiar about the white haired boy. Neku couldn't remember; it was like there was a wall whenever he tried to remember. Yet, there was something on the other side of the wall beckoning him forward until he couldn't go any further.

He struggled against his chains but it was useless; he had no escape. Instead, he was forced to watch as the white-haired boy was thrown around by the two monsters. He should have been surprised; he should have freaked out or screamed when the woman turned into that thing. Except, he didn't; it was like he was used to this. It was as if he knew what was going on.

He watched painfully as the boy was tossed back and forth. He winced at his gasps and screams.

Why won't he fight back? Neku felt the sudden urge, no, need to protect him or at least encourage him to fight back. He struggled to remember who he was. He pushed himself against the mental wall that was blocking him from what he thought was his memories. He pounded on it yearning to get through.

As the boy hit the ground, he glanced at Neku. The moment that their eyes met, the wall was broken. Suddenly, memories poured into his head. From the first time they met, to the second pact, the laughs, and the kiss. Neku gasped and soon found it hard to think. Part of him wished that he never broke that wall; part of him was glad.

"J-j-…" he tried to say but his voice broke. Yet, he took a deep breath and yelled out, "JOSHUAA!."

There was silence; the noises stopped. Even without looking, Neku could tell that Joshua was staring right at him. He could also feel the glares of the other two.

_That's right they're Noise._

Despite the splitting headache, he lifted his head so that his eyes met with Joshua's.

"You idiot," he whispered as he took in Joshua's beat up body.

Despite his injuries, Joshua managed a chuckle. "How the hell did you get pass my imprint."

"It wasn't the strongest," Neku smiled.

Haruki got up and walked over to Neku. "Well I don't know how you broke his imprint but that doesn't mean that you're saved." At that, she tried to punch Neku but was stopped….by Joshua.

"Don't you dare touch him," he hissed.

"What? How?" Haruki exclaimed and glanced at the phone in Joshua's hand. "But of course," she hissed back, "You're still just a human after all."

Joshua managed to cut the chains off of Neku. "Maybe I shouldn't have made eye contact with you," he whispered.

Neku jumped down. "So you were prepared to die?"

Joshua didn't answer and helped Neku get up. "You have a headache?"

"A bad one thanks to you." Neku felt around for his pins but could only find a few pins in his pocket.

Joshua looked over and shook his head. "We can't use fusion now."

Haruki and Sho both bursted into laughter. "A boy with little to no powers and another boy with a joke of a weapon… this should be fun."

"So zetta stupid."

They were attacked from both sides. While Neku's attacks were blocked off effortlessly, Joshua was experiencing the same problem. He threw objects at Sho but was unsuccessful at hurting him. In a matter of minutes, Neku and Joshua were lying painfully on the ground.

"As I thought, you guys are no fun at all."

"You, radians can't win."

"Hey, Neku," Joshua whispered.

"Yea?"

"Does your head still hurt?"

"That's a stupid question seeing that my entire body is hurting right now."

Joshua chuckled, "do you think we'll die like this?"

"I don't know."

"Do you want to die like this?"

"Of course not."

"Then remember how you felt during those three weeks in the Games," Joshua said pointing at Neku's pins.

"What do you-?

"What are you two talking about," Haruki asked in annoyance.

"About your sister," Joshua taunted and earned a hard kick to the head.

"What about my sister?" she hissed and placed her foot on Joshua's head, attempting to crush his skull.

Suddenly, a car appeared above her head and dropped on her; pinning her to the ground.

"Why you little," she hissed and turned to Sho. "Hey, you! Go kill that boy!"

"Don't factoring tell me what to do, hectopascal," Sho muttered before turning back into his Noise form.

Joshua slowly got up and took out his cell phone that was now covered in blood. "Remember, Neku."

And he did. As he fought Haruki, he remembered everything.

_The strength from the first week…_

He sliced and scratched her.

_The determination from the second week…_

He hit her straight on.

_The desperation on the third week…_

He set the wall on fire and threw her against it, momentarily knocking her out.

He knew that Joshua must be doing the same.

xx.

Joshua wasn't. What he told Neku to do was basically something to keep him fighting. He, himself, did not want to rely on the bitterness of his past to fuel his energy.

Sho was relentless. He constantly tackled Joshua head on; trying in every way, to find an opening.

"So zetta slow."

Joshua evaded all of his attacks. "So tell me, why pair up with Haruki?"

Sho didn't answer. He only kept attacking, blocking any opening of Joshua to deliver an attack back at him.

"You know she's only trying to avenge her sister."

"Yes, but she wanted to factoring kill you too."

Joshua smirked and dropped a vending machine on top of him. "Now doesn't this feel familiar?"

Sho scoffed and sliced the vending machines out of the way and tackled Joshua into the wall. He held him by the neck and smiled. "I'm done playing, hectopascal. Prepared to be iterated."

"No!" Neku yelled and ran towards Joshua but was pulled back by Haruki. She skillfully evaded his attacks and held him face to face with his burning wall. "Let's see how you fair against your own attack."

"N-neku," Joshua coughed and looked up at Sho. "I guess I have no choice," he whispered.

"What did you factoring say?"

Joshua cocked his head to the side. "My last wishes…..for you."

xx.

The sound of an explosion rang all throughout Shibuya. Some were terrified at the thoughts of what had happened; others were amazed and curious.

However, when they went to investigate, they couldn't find anything out of the ordinary…

xx.

Joshua was lying on the ground with Neku in his arms. His breathing was getting softer and softer. He mentally scolded himself for going pass his limits but there was no other option back there. There was nothing else he could have done.

"Joshua," Neku said softly, his voice was barely above a whisper.

"Yes?"

"You look so pale."

Joshua managed a smile. "Yea? I'm just tired."

"Where is that woman and Sho?"

"Gone, hopefully."

"Your voice is getting softer."

"I'm tired, Neku dear."

"Then go to sleep."

Joshua smiled. If this is how he was going to die then he'd prefer it no other way. His breathing slowed and his heartbeats became slower as well. But what luck! To always die right when getting back the person he cares most about. He chuckled to himself.

_I guess that's just my fate._

And now it was going to end. This fate; this curse. He closed his eyes and felt his heart beats slow to a stop.

xx.

"Yoshiya? Yoshiya!...Joshua!"

Joshua opened his eyes to find himself still in Shibuya River but face to face with an angel.

"Hinamori-san?"

The angel sighed and leaned forward to examine Joshua's wounds. She sighed again, "You could have just called for us to help."

Joshua smiled, "Sorry but I don't like to rely on the higher order for help. It's my responsibility."

"Yes, and it got you killed, literally."

After the work "killed", Joshua frantically looked around. Wasn't he supposed to be dead?

"You aren't the only one who gets to control who dies, Joshua."

"So you…"

"We all did," she said, "we all decided that neither you nor your partner deserves death. I'm just a messenger."

Joshua looked away and tried to take all of this in. "Why?"

"Pardon?"

"Why did you keep me alive? Wouldn't it be better to just get another Composer?"

The angel took in a breath and shook her head. "Too risky… once you're out, there will be disputes about who will be next. There will be fights that might lead to an even worse Composer. Were already taking a risk with you but well," she looked at sleeping Neku, "you probably won't do anything stupid."

She turned to leave but Joshua called her back. "Hinamori, has the judgment been lifted?"

She smiled, "Yes, you may return to your position as Composer as soon as you see fit." With that she disappeared.

Neku stirred on Joshua's arms. "Joshua?"

"Yes?"

"Good, you're still here."

"And why wouldn't I be?"

Neku was silent for a while. "I thought you were dead."

Joshua smiled at Neku. "Well I'm not, see?" He leaned down and kissed Neku on the cheek.

Neku blushed. "I'm tired."

Joshua lightly caressed Neku's cheeks. "Then go to sleep, silly."

Neku gave Joshua a soft smile. "Joshua?"

"Yes, Neku dear?"

"I love you."

It was now Joshua's turn to blush. Yet, he smiled and this time, kissed Neku's lips. "I love you too."

With that, Neku's eyes closed and his fell asleep.

_cc._

_Just in case you were wondering, no this is not the last chapter :) hope you like JoshuaxNeku foreva 3_


	16. Return

"Hey, Neku?" Joshua said softly as he continued flipping through the channels.

"What is it?"

Joshua's hand stopped went the news came up. They were still talking about the mysterious explosion from a few days ago. Joshua sighed. "You know it's been a few days since we fought Haruki and Sho."

"Yea?" Neku was hardly paying attention to anything. He had his head lying on one hand and played around with his pins with the other.

"I should return to the UG soon."

That caught Neku's attention. "Why?" he asked as if the answer wasn't already obvious.

"Well, I've heard that they had Kariya and Uzuki take over when I was gone…."

"Oh," Neku said and smirked, "If those two caused chaos then I'm not surprised."

"Ah no harm was done," Joshua smirked, "Actually, the games has been quieter than ever."

"Is that a good or bad thing?"

"That really depends on the Composer and well frankly, I don't like things being too quiet."

Neku became silent for a while. "So… it's finally over…"

"Over as in…"

"They're gone. Haruki and Sho I mean…they're dead."

Joshua scoffed. "Knowing Sho, he probably thought of a way to escape. Haruki in the other hand…"

"Sho's still alive?"

"Most likely more or less."

Neku sighed. The very thought of Sho still alive was quite disturbing. Yet, he was hardly surprised anymore. Too many crazy things have happened to him in less than a year.

He looked at Joshua and decided to change the subject. "You'll still visit right?"

"I can't say for sure. My job gets really time-consuming."

"Oh," Neku gave a small, wistful smile.

"But," Joshua said, "I guess we can work something out, right? Neku?"

"Uh huh sure," Neku said.

Joshua rolled his eyes. "But I guess we can spend one more day together…" He leaned over so that his arm could go freely around Neku's shoulder. "So I guess I'm the guy in this relationship."

Neku couldn't help but laugh. "Right right sure and that makes me the girl?"

"Oh how quick you are, Nekky dear."

Neku rolled his eyes. A few months ago, he would have gotten angry and punched Joshua but now…. it was a relief. "Whatever," he laughed, "it's not like you get to call the shots."

"Oh I beg to differ," Joshua laughed and leaned towards Neku until their lips met.

It seemed that time slowed down when they kissed. Joshua had leaned over causing Neku to fall back onto the couch. They had no idea how long they stayed in that position nor did they care. All they felt was the heat radiating from each other's bodies.

"Joshua…"Neku said softly, his voice was raspy and he was breathing hard.

"Yes, Neku?" Joshua's voice was soft and his breath came out quick and sharp.

"Maybe we should…"

Joshua managed a chuckle and pulled away gasping for breath. "We will but not today. I think you're just as out of breath as I am."

Neku sighed but pulled away. He was tired enough today. Both of their faces were red and they were both breathing hard. "So…Josh…when will you be going back?"

"I'm thinking tomorrow the very least."

"Oh." Neku leaned against the couch and held out his hand.

Joshua gave him a quizzical look. "Neku, what—"

"I'm asking to hold your hand you idiot."

Joshua smirked and placed his hand in Neku's. "I wasn't going to ask that, you idiot."

"Then what were you going to ask?"

"Why you want to do that all of a sudden. I mean—"

"Oh just shut up, Joshua. Why can't we just enjoy this moment."

Joshua gave Neku a smile and squeezed his hand. "Because I'm impatient."

Neku gave him a look. This was so weird. A few months ago, he hated him. A few days ago, he didn't even remember him. And now….

"What are you thinking?"

"How much I want to kill you for doing an imprint on me."

"Didn't I tell you it was for your own good?"

"Yep and I nearly got killed."

Joshua sighed and didn't respond.

"I'll get you back for it."

"Oh? I'd like to see you try."

Neku didn't say anything but his intense glare started to make Joshua uncomfortable. What was he staring at? He obvious wasn't staring at Joshua in the eye. Then…

He followed Neku's glare to his…. Oh God.

Neku pounced him before he had time to react and in less than a minute, Joshua was laughing away.

"N-Neku!"

"I did say that I'd get you back didn't I? Well this is the best way to do it," Neku laughed.

Joshua didn't complain; he couldn't complain. He knew that if people asked him about this, he would say that this was far from torture. It was far from humiliation also. Having Neku torture him like this… it was a dream come true.

"H-hey, Neku," Joshua laughed.

"What is it?" Neku smiled and stopped for a moment.

"You're so sadistic… for a girl," Joshua teased and immediately started laughing again.

xx.

_A couple months later…_

Joshua paced back and forth in the Dead God's Pad. He narrowed his eyes while reading one of the "documents" about this one girl who died 10 years ago. Her name was Haruki Mitsuki. She was around twenty-four when her body was found after she jumped off the bridge.

Joshua sighed and dropped the papers onto the table and glanced at the pile of papers that still needed to be read. He sighed again and sat down. After another glance at the pile, he made a mental note to kill Kariya later. He picked up the first stack of papers and looked at it.

His heart skipped a beat and he made a mental note to Erase Kariya and Uzuki later.

Name: Neku Sakuraba ….

Joshua couldn't help but smirk and could even imagine Uzuki rummaging through the files just for this one.

"And to think," he thought out loud, "A couple months ago, we were ready to kill each other."

He threw it back down and sighed again. He looked down at the papers that he requested from Mr. H.

"Haruki Mitsuki…." He mused.

Something about her motives just confused him. He was too much in a hurry to see it before but… she revived Yomi when she could have just revived her sister. If she had really been trying to save Konishi then why go through all that trouble?

"Just for an excuse I'm sure," Joshua said and flipped through the papers.

_Born in January 14, 1980…_

_Had two sisters… was the oldest…. Abused…. Cutting… depression…_

Joshua couldn't help but feel sorry for them. No wonder both Haruki and Konishi were such harsh people when they were sent to the UG. 

_Yet, Haruki wasn't after the role as Composer. She didn't seem to care for her sister either. Then what was her motive?_

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in."

The door opened and an orange-haired boy walked in.

"Joshua?"

Joshua turned around and smiled. "Hey, Neku."

He had told him that he'd work something out and he did. As Neku walked in, his radiant smile seemed to fully mirror his own.

"Joshua."

"Hmm?"

Neku happily held up the wrapped box in his hands. "Happy Birthday."

cc.

_Yeayea I know horribly boring last chapter :P But I do appreciate all you people who stuck with my story from beginning til the end so I'd like to extend a huge thank you to all of you! JoshuaxNeku forever!_


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